Review

Systematic review of wireless phone use and brain cancer and other head tumors†‡

  1. Michael H. Repacholi1,*,
  2. Alexander Lerchl2,
  3. Martin Röösli3,
  4. Zenon Sienkiewicz4,
  5. Anssi Auvinen5,
  6. Jürgen Breckenkamp6,
  7. Guglielmo d'Inzeo1,
  8. Paul Elliott7,
  9. Patrizia Frei8,
  10. Sabine Heinrich9,
  11. Isabelle Lagroye10,
  12. Anna Lahkola11,
  13. David L. McCormick12,
  14. Silke Thomas9,
  15. Paolo Vecchia13

Article first published online: 21 OCT 2011

DOI: 10.1002/bem.20716

Issue

Bioelectromagnetics

Bioelectromagnetics

Volume 33, Issue 3, pages 187–206, April 2012

Additional Information

How to Cite

Repacholi, M. H., Lerchl, A., Röösli, M., Sienkiewicz, Z., Auvinen, A., Breckenkamp, J., d'Inzeo, G., Elliott, P., Frei, P., Heinrich, S., Lagroye, I., Lahkola, A., McCormick, D. L., Thomas, S. and Vecchia, P. (2012), Systematic review of wireless phone use and brain cancer and other head tumors. Bioelectromagnetics, 33: 187–206. doi: 10.1002/bem.20716

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Information Engineering, Electronics and Telecommunications (DIET), “La Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy

  2. 2

    School of Engineering and Science, Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany

  3. 3

    Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

  4. 4

    Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, Health Protection Agency, Chilton, Didcot, UK

  5. 5

    STUK, Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, Helsinki, Finland, and University of Tampere, School of Public Health, Tampere, Finland

  6. 6

    Department of Epidemiology and International Public Health, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany

  7. 7

    Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health and MRC-HPA Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, UK

  8. 8

    Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark

  9. 9

    Unit for Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology and NetTeaching, Institute and Outpatient Clinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Clinical Center of the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany

  10. 10

    Laboratoire de Bioélectromagnétisme EPHE/Laboratoire IMS UMR 5218, ENSCBP, University of Bordeaux, Pessac, France

  11. 11

    STUK, Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, Helsinki, Finland

  12. 12

    IIT Research Institute, Chicago, Illinois, USA

  13. 13

    National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy

*Department of Information Engineering, Electronics and Telecommunications (DIET), University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy.

  1. †

    Funding: Other than the usual support provided to authors by their institutions, no additional funding was provided to conduct this review.

  2. ‡

    Conflicts of interest: PE and AA are Principal Investigators (PI) of the international COSMOS Study, which is a prospective cohort study investigating the possible long-term health effects of wireless phone use. PE receives funding from the UK Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) Programme (www.mthr.org.uk), an independent body set up to provide funding for research into the possible health effects of mobile telecommunications. MTHR is jointly funded by the UK Department of Health and the mobile telecommunications industry. PE's research is also supported by the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and he is an NIHR Senior Investigator. AA receives research funding for the Finnish COSMOS component from the research programme of the National Technology Agency with contributions from network operators (TeliaSonera and Elisa) and Nokia. AA was the PI of the Finnish component of the Interphone consortium that was funded through the Fifth EU Framework programme, with partial funding from the Mobile Manufacturers Forum and the GSM Association (with UICC as the firewall). All other authors reported no conflicts of interest.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 2 MAR 2012
  2. Article first published online: 21 OCT 2011
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 25 SEP 2011
  4. Manuscript Received: 11 JAN 2011

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Keywords:

  • wireless phones;
  • brain cancer;
  • head tumors;
  • radiofrequency fields;
  • systematic review

Abstract

We conducted a systematic review of scientific studies to evaluate whether the use of wireless phones is linked to an increased incidence of the brain cancer glioma or other tumors of the head (meningioma, acoustic neuroma, and parotid gland), originating in the areas of the head that most absorb radiofrequency (RF) energy from wireless phones. Epidemiology and in vivo studies were evaluated according to an agreed protocol; quality criteria were used to evaluate the studies for narrative synthesis but not for meta-analyses or pooling of results. The epidemiology study results were heterogeneous, with sparse data on long-term use (≥10 years). Meta-analyses of the epidemiology studies showed no statistically significant increase in risk (defined as P < 0.05) for adult brain cancer or other head tumors from wireless phone use. Analyses of the in vivo oncogenicity, tumor promotion, and genotoxicity studies also showed no statistically significant relationship between exposure to RF fields and genotoxic damage to brain cells, or the incidence of brain cancers or other tumors of the head. Assessment of the review results using the Hill criteria did not support a causal relationship between wireless phone use and the incidence of adult cancers in the areas of the head that most absorb RF energy from the use of wireless phones. There are insufficient data to make any determinations about longer-term use (≥10 years). Bioelectromagnetics 33:187–206, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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