Authored By:
Carlberg M, Hardell LThis case-control study looked at the association between long-term mobile and cordless (wireless) phone use and the survival of glioma patients. In the study wireless phone use was compared among 1678 glioma patients. The study found decreased survival for glioma patients with wireless phone use of more than 20 years (odds ratio, OR = 1.7, 95% confidence interval, 95% CI = 1.2-2.3). For the most malignant glioma type, glioblastoma multiforme, mobile phone use yielded OR = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.4-2.9 and cordless phone use OR = 3.4, 95% CI = 1.04-11 (for use of more than 20 years). However the study found lower OR (increased survival) for the less malignant glioma types. The authors conclude that this study strengthens the proposed causal association between use of wireless phones and glioma.
Published In:
Int J Environ Res Public Health 2014; 11 (10): 10790 – 10805There have been several case-control studies since 2000 looking at the association between mobile phone use and brain tumours. The majority of these can be divided into two main groups: (a) the studies by Hardell and co‑workers (some of which have also included cordless phones) and (b) the INTERPHONE studies.
Hardell and colleagues have published quite a number of papers since 2000 based on six original case-control studies performed in Sweden; some of which have been pooled analyses of the results. Khurana et al (2009) summarised the Hardell results as showing statistically significant positive associations between glioma or acoustic neuroma and use of wireless phones. The risks increased with latency period, particularly of more than 10 years, and with cumulative mobile phone use of more than 2000 hours.
The INTERPHONE project, which is coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, is a multi-national series of case-control studies (from thirteen different countries including Australia) testing whether using mobile phones is associated with an increased risk of various cancers in the head and neck. The INTERPHONE studies were based on a common core protocol to enable valid data pooling.
A pooled analysis of the INTERPHONE studies for malignant brain tumours (glioma and meningioma) showed no overall association (INTERPHONE Study Group, 2010 (PDF 187 kb)). There were suggestions of an association (most pronounced for glioma) in the group representing individuals with the highest cumulative call time. The authors note that limitations of the methodology prevent conclusions of causality being drawn from these observations.
Although the Hardell studies are similar to the INTERPHONE studies there are subtle methodological differences which might account for the deviating results.
