Meta-analysis of long-term mobile phone use and the association with brain tumours

Abstract

Abstract. We evaluated long-term use of mobile phones and the risk for brain tumours in case-control studies published so far on this issue. We identified ten studies on glioma and meta-analysis yielded OR = 0.9, 95% CI = 0.8-1.1. Latency period of ≥10-years gave OR = 1.2, 95% CI = 0.8-1.9 based on six studies, for ipsilateral use (same side as tumour) OR = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.2-3.4 (four studies), but contralateral use did not increase the risk significantly, OR = 1.1, 95% CI = 0.6-2.0. Meta-analysis of nine studies on acoustic neuroma gave OR = 0.9, 95% CI = 0.7-1.1 increasing to OR = 1.3, 95% CI = 0.6-2.8 using ≥10-years latency period (four studies). Ipsilateral use gave OR = 2.4, 95% CI = 1.1-5.3 and contralateral OR = 1.2, 95% CI = 0.7-2.2 in the ≥10-years latency period group (three studies). Seven studies gave results for meningioma yielding overall OR = 0.8, 95% CI = 0.7-0.99. Using ≥10-years latency period OR = 1.3, 95% CI = 0.9-1.8 was calculated (four studies) increasing to OR = 1.7, 95% CI = 0.99-3.1 for ipsilateral use and OR = 1.0, 95% CI = 0.3-3.1 for contralateral use (two studies). We conclude that this meta-analysis gave a consistent pattern of an association between mobile phone use and ipsilateral glioma and acoustic neuroma using ≥10-years latency period.

Mobile phones, cordless phones and the risk for brain tumours

“…The aim of this presentation is not to give a review of this area, since such publications can be found elsewhere (6,7). In addition to our studies only a few publications from the so-called Interphone group give results for 10-year latency (7). That group includes 13 countries and cases and controls were recruited during 1999-2004, varying for different countries.…”

Mobile Phones and Head Tumours: A Critical Analysis of Case-Control Epidemiological Studies

“…Moreover, it reports selectively chosen data from Hardell's 2006 papers, including his pooled-analyses [1,2] referred to subjects with 5 year latency but does not highlight, for those with 10 year latency, the much more significant data on increases of ipsilateral head tumour risk, although these are clearly indicated in Hardell's papers. Besides, it does not consider the recent studies by Hardell [3,[35][36][37] or those of Interphone [22,24,29,31,32] which report s.s. increases of ipsilateral head tumour risk after 10-year latency or use of cellular phones ( Table 2). Consequently, the Ahlbom metaanalysis gives results that lack any indication of head tumour risk from MP use or latency up to 10 years (Table 3), emphasising the complete incompatibility between the two data sources: 83% of Hardell's risk data (OR) are > 1, of which 43% are s.s., while the Interphone data are largely (73%) < 1, of which 11% are s.s.…”

“…In fact, the meta-analyses of Hardell [35,36], Khurana [37], Kundi [38], and ourselves [39], including the literature data on head tumours in people with MP latency or continuous use of at least 10 years -and thus, besides Hardell's data [1][2][3][4]36], also part of the Interphone data [23-25, 29, 31, 32] -show large and s.s. increases (100%) of the risk of ipsilateral gliomas with high level of malignancy, and sizable and s.s. increases (50-140%) of the risk of ipsilateral acoustic neuromas (Table 3). These increases are smaller than those found by Hardell in the pooled analyses of his data alone [1,2,4], being "diluted" with the Interphone data corresponding to the requirements indicated above.…”

Noninvasive Assessment of Metabolic Effects of Exposure to 900 MHz Electromagnetic Fields on Djungarian Hamsters (Phodopus sungorus)

“…Several meta-analyses of brain tumour studies have been published (e.g. Ahlbom et al, 2009;Hardell et al, 2008;Kan et al, 2008;Lahkola, Tokola & Auvinen, 2006;Myung et al, 2009). Their coverage of studies has varied, affecting the overall results, but most have indicated heterogeneity between study results.…”