TITLE:
Mobile Phone Usage and the Risk of Brain Tumors
AUTHORS:
Naina Sawal, Amir Hossein Mortazavi Entesab
KEYWORDS:
Cellular Phone, Cancer, Tumor, Brain, Mobile Phone, Short Term, Long Term, Cross-Sectional, Meta-Analysis, Radiofrequencies, Glioma, Meningioma, and Schwannoma
JOURNAL NAME:
Occupational Diseases and Environmental Medicine,
Vol.4 No.3,
July
19,
2016
ABSTRACT: Purpose: This literature review investigated the possible association between the use of mobile
phones and brain tumors. Methods: In brief, 11 publications were retrieved from JSTOR, PubMed,
Google Scholar and Summon in order to compare the association between the usage of mobile
phones in patients with a brain tumor and those without. Papers published in English, and after
2001 were selected for. There was no limit on age, gender, geographical location and type of brain
tumor. Results: For regular mobile phone usage, the combined odds ratios (OR) (95% confidence
intervals) for three studies are: 1.5 (1.2 - 1.8), 1.3 (0.95 - 1.9), and 1.1 (0.8 - 1.4), respectively. Furthermore,
the odds ratio did not increase, regardless of mobile phone use duration. Additionally,
Lonn et al. (2005) observed that the risk also did not significantly increase when assessing the laterality
(ipsilateral or contralateral) of the tumor in relation to side of head used for the mobile
phone. Kan et al. (2007) observed an OR of 1.22 when comparing analog phone to digital phone
use. Conclusion: This review concludes that there is no current association between mobile phone
use and the development of brain tumors. Although certain studies speak in favor of an increased
risk, many are plagued with either: sampling bias, misclassification bias, or issues concerning risk
estimates. Further research needs to be done in order to evaluate the long-term effect of mobile
phone usage on the risk of developing a brain tumor.