Cellular telephones and risk for brain tumors
A population-based, incident case-control study
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Abstract
Objective: To evaluate a possible association of glioma or meningioma with use of cellular telephones, using a nationwide population-based case-control study of incident cases of meningioma and glioma.
Methods: The authors ascertained all incident cases of glioma and meningioma diagnosed in Denmark between September 1, 2000, and August 31, 2002. They enrolled 252 persons with glioma and 175 persons with meningioma aged 20 to 69. The authors also enrolled 822 randomly sampled, population-based controls matched for age and sex. Information was obtained from personal interviews, medical records containing diagnoses, and the results of radiologic examinations. For a small number of cases and controls, the authors obtained the numbers of incoming and outgoing calls. They evaluated the memory of the respondents with the Mini-Mental State Examination and obtained data on socioeconomic factors from Statistics Denmark.
Results: There were no material socioeconomic differences between cases and controls or participants and non-participants. Use of cellular telephone was associated with a low risk for high-grade glioma (OR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.37 to 0.90). The risk estimates were closer to unity for low-grade glioma (1.08; 0.58 to 2.00) and meningioma (1.00; 0.54 to 1.28).
Conclusion: The results do not support an association between use of cellular telephones and risk for glioma or meningioma.
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Published online: April 11, 2005
Published in print: April 12, 2005
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Christensen et al attempt to determine whether cellular telephone use increases the incidence of brain tumors. [1]
The authors recruited Danish patients with known gliomas and meningiomas. They also recruited matched control patients, and compared the incidence, intensity and duration of cell phone use between the two groups. When no significant difference was demonstrated, the authors concluded that cellular telephones do not increase the risk of developing these brain tumors.
The construction of this study does not support this conclusion. This study was not designed to provide data which could determine if cell phone users have a higher risk of malignancy than people who do not use cell phones. Rather, the study provides data which indicate whether patients with gliomas and meningiomas have a higher "risk" of using cellular telephones. Since most brain tumors are not caused by cell phone use, the answer does little to tell us about whether cell phone use increased the risk of cancer.
Perhaps a more useful research design would have included a control group of persons who do not use cell phones (or who use them relatively infrequently) and an experimental group of frequent cell phone users. This might have provided a more valid context for testing for any difference in the incidence of gliomas and meningiomas between the two groups. It may be that this analysis could be performed using a subset of Dr. Christensen's existing data.
The authors of this Correspondence report no conflicts of interest.
References
1. Christensen HC,Schüz J, Kosteljanetz M, et al. Cellular telephones and risk for brain tumors: A population-based, incident case-control study. Neurology, 2005; 64:1189-1195.
The authors of the article had the opportunity to respond to this Correspondence but declined.