Public concern has been expressed about the possible adverse health effects of mobile telephones, mainly related to intracranial tumors. We conducted a population-based case-control study to investigate the relationship between mobile phone use and risk of glioma among 1,521 glioma patients and 3,301 controls. We found no evidence of increased risk of glioma related to regular mobile phone use (odds ratio, OR 5 0.78, 95% confidence interval, CI: 0.68, 0.91). No significant association was found across categories with duration of use, years since first use, cumulative number of calls or cumulative hours of use. When the linear trend was examined, the OR for cumulative hours of mobile phone use was 1.006 (1.002, 1.010) per 100 hr, but no such relationship was found for the years of use or the number of calls. We found no increased risks when analogue and digital phones were analyzed separately. For more than 10 years of mobile phone use reported on the side of the head where the tumor was located, an increased OR of borderline statistical significance (OR 5 1.39, 95% CI 1.01, 1.92, p trend 0.04) was found, whereas similar use on the opposite side of the head resulted in an OR of 0.98 (95% CI 0.71, 1.37). Although our results overall do not indicate an increased risk of glioma in relation to mobile phone use, the possible risk in the most heavily exposed part of the brain with long-term use needs to be explored further before firm conclusions can be drawn. ' 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Key words: mobile phones; brain tumors; case-control studies Mobile phone use has increased rapidly worldwide since the early 1990s. Mobile phones emit radiofrequency electromagnetic fields that are non-ionizing radiation, i.e. have too low energy to break chemical bonds. Hence, such fields cannot cause DNA damage (mutations), which is required for cancer initiation. 1 However, radiofrequency fields might be involved in cancer development at later stages, including tumor progression or promotion. Despite the fact that no carcinogenic mechanism for radiofrequency radiation has been established, 2 there is public concern about the possible health effects of mobile phone use. This is mainly related to intracranial tumors, as mobile phones are used close to the head and the radiofrequency field is absorbed mostly in the head and neck region. The studies published on the issue have covered a relatively small number of study subjects with long-term exposure, and so far the epidemiological evidence does not suggest any clear increase of intracranial tumors related to mobile phone use, although some positive findings have been reported. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] We conducted a collaborative population-based case-control study on the association of mobile phone use with intracranial tumors in 5 Northern European countries, using a shared protocol of the INTERPHONE study coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. 20 We report here the results concerning glioma, based on the combined data from D...

We conducted a systematic review of scientific studies to evaluate whether the use of wireless phones is linked to an increased incidence of the brain cancer glioma or other tumors of the head (meningioma, acoustic neuroma, and parotid gland), originating in the areas of the head that most absorb radiofrequency (RF) energy from wireless phones. Epidemiology and in vivo studies were evaluated according to an agreed protocol; quality criteria were used to evaluate the studies for narrative synthesis but not for meta-analyses or pooling of results. The epidemiology study results were heterogeneous, with sparse data on long-term use (≥ 10 years). Meta-analyses of the epidemiology studies showed no statistically significant increase in risk (defined as P < 0.05) for adult brain cancer or other head tumors from wireless phone use. Analyses of the in vivo oncogenicity, tumor promotion, and genotoxicity studies also showed no statistically significant relationship between exposure to RF fields and genotoxic damage to brain cells, or the incidence of brain cancers or other tumors of the head. Assessment of the review results using the Hill criteria did not support a causal relationship between wireless phone use and the incidence of adult cancers in the areas of the head that most absorb RF energy from the use of wireless phones. There are insufficient data to make any determinations about longer-term use (≥ 10 years).

Our results do not provide support for an association between mobile phone use and risk of meningioma.

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