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Mobile phone use linked to benign tumors
Source: (cancerfacts.com
Friday, October 15, 2004
STOCKHOLM – Oct. 15, 2004 – Ten or more years of mobile phone use increases the risk of a rare type of non-cancerous tumor according to a new study.
The researchers found no indications of an increased risk for less than 10 years of mobile phone use, however, and the study only included people who used older technology phones.
"At the time when the study was conducted only analogue mobile phones had been in use for more than 10 years," the researchers from the Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM) at Karolinska Institutet wrote. "Therefore we cannot determine if the results are confined to use of analogue phones, or if the results would be similar also after long term use of digital phones."
The type of tumor is called acoustic neuroma, a benign tumor of the nerve that carries sound from the inner ear to the brain. The exact cause usually is unknown and it occurs in less than one adult per 100,000 per year.
Patients in certain parts of Sweden were identified during a three-year study by clinics where acoustic neuroma tumors are treated. Participants without the disease were randomly selected from the population.
A total of about 150 acoustic neuroma patients and 600 healthy participants were studied. A nurse contacted all patients and non-affected participants and asked detailed questions about their mobile phone use and other issues of importance for the study.
They found the risk of acoustic neuroma was almost doubled for persons who started to use their mobile phones at least 10 years prior to diagnosis.
"When the side of the head on which the phone was usually held was taken into consideration, we found that the risk of acoustic neuroma was almost four times higher on the same side as the phone was held, and virtually normal on the other side," the researchers wrote.
This is the first report from the Swedish portion of the INTERPHONE study, an international collaboration coordinated by the World Health Organization's cancer research institute, the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer).
The Swedish results need to be confirmed in additional studies before firm conclusions can be drawn. Other centers within the INTERPHONE study where a sufficient number of long term mobile phone users can be included will contribute additional data over time.
The study was funded by the European Union Fifth Framework Program.
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