title: Mobile phone use and risk of glioma in 5 North European countries.
abstract: 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 1,522 glioma patients and 3,301 controls. We found no evidence of increased risk of glioma related to regular mobile phone use (odds ratio, OR = 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 = 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.
authors.affiliation: STUK, Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, Helsinki, Finland. anna.lahkola@stuk.fi
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lahkola
authors.forename: Anssi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Auvinen
authors.forename: Jani
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Raitanen
authors.forename: Minouk J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Schoemaker
authors.forename: Helle C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Feychting
authors.forename: Christoffer
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Johansen
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Klaeboe
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lönn
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Swerdlow
authors.forename: Tore
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tynes
authors.forename: Tiina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Salminen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D040421:Cell Phone / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005910:Glioma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors