Peter D. Inskip, Sc.D., Robert E. Tarone, Ph.D., Elizabeth E. Hatch, Ph.D., Timothy C. Wilcosky, Ph.D., William R. Shapiro, M.D., Robert G. Selker, M.D., Howard A. Fine, M.D., Peter M. Black, M.D., Jay S. Loeffler, M.D., and Martha S. Linet, M.D.
Background Concern has arisen that the use of hand-held cellulartelephones might cause brain tumors. If such a risk does exist,the matter would be of considerable public health importance,given the rapid increase worldwide in the use of these devices.
Methods We examined the use of cellular telephones in a case–controlstudy of intracranial tumors of the nervous system conductedbetween 1994 and 1998. We enrolled 782 patients through hospitalsin Phoenix, Arizona; Boston; and Pittsburgh; 489 had histologicallyconfirmed glioma, 197 had meningioma, and 96 had acoustic neuroma.The 799 controls were patients admitted to the same hospitalsas the patients with brain tumors for a variety of nonmalignantconditions.
Results As compared with never, or very rarely, having useda cellular telephone, the relative risks associated with a cumulativeuse of a cellular telephone for more than 100 hours were 0.9for glioma (95 percent confidence interval, 0.5 to 1.6), 0.7for meningioma (95 percent confidence interval, 0.3 to 1.7),1.4 for acoustic neuroma (95 percent confidence interval, 0.6to 3.5), and 1.0 for all types of tumors combined (95 percentconfidence interval, 0.6 to 1.5). There was no evidence thatthe risks were higher among persons who used cellular telephonesfor 60 or more minutes per day or regularly for five or moreyears. Tumors did not occur disproportionately often on theside of head on which the telephone was typically used.
Conclusions These data do not support the hypothesis that therecent use of hand-held cellular telephones causes brain tumors,but they are not sufficient to evaluate the risks among long-term,heavy users and for potentially long induction periods.
Source Information
From the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (P.D.I., R.E.T., E.E.H., M.S.L.), and the Neuro-Oncology Branch (H.A.F.), National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Md.; the Epidemiology and Medical Studies Program, Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, N.C. (T.C.W.); the Department of Neurology, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, Ariz. (W.R.S.); the Division of Neurosurgery, Western Pennsylvania Hospital, Pittsburgh (R.G.S.); Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston (P.M.B.); and the Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston (J.S.L.).
Address reprint requests to Dr. Inskip at Executive Plaza S., Rm. 7052, 6120 Executive Blvd., Rockville, MD 20852, or at inskippe{at}mail.nih.gov.
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