Aug 30, 2005
Mobile Phone Use and Risk of Acoustic Neuroma: Results of the Interphone Case-control Study in Five North European Countries
M J Schoemaker, A J Swerdlow, A Ahlbom, A Auvinen, K G Blaasaas, E Cardis, H Collatz Christensen, M Feychting, S J Hepworth, C Johansen, L Klæboe, S Lönn, P A McKinney, K Muir, J Raitanen, T Salminen, J Thomsen and T Tynes, in British Journal of Cancer, Volume 93, Number 7, 842–848, October 2005.
A study (by scientists from The Institute of Cancer Research, London) on the risk of acoustic neuroma in relation to mobile phone use was conducted with a shared protocol in a six population-based case-control studies in four Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland) and the UK. Data were collected by personal interview from 678 cases of acoustic neuroma and 3553 controls. The risk of acoustic neuroma in relation to regular mobile phone use in the pooled data set was not raised (odds ratio (OR)1/0.9, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.7-1.1). There was no association of risk with duration of use, lifetime cumulative hours of use or number of calls, for phone use overall or for analogue or digital phones separately. Risk of a tumour on the same side of the head as reported phone use was raised for use for 10 years or longer (OR1/1.8, 95% CI: 1.1-3.1). The study suggests that there is no substantial risk of acoustic neuroma in the first decade after starting mobile phone use. However, an increase in risk after longer term use or after a longer lag period could not be ruled out.
