Cancer por telefonos

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Mobile Phone Use and the Risk of Acoustic Neuroma
Stefan Lonn,* Anders Ahlbom,* Per Hall,† and Maria Feychting* ¨

Background: Radiofrequency exposure from mobile phones is concentrated to the tissue closest to the handset, which includes the auditory nerve. If this type of exposure increases tumor risk, acoustic neuroma would be a potential concern. Methods: In thispopulation-based case-control study we identified all cases age 20 to 69 years diagnosed with acoustic neuroma during 1999 to 2002 in certain parts of Sweden. Controls were randomly selected from the study base, stratified on age, sex, and residential area. Detailed information about mobile phone use and other environmental exposures was collected from 148 (93%) cases and 604 (72%) controls. Results: Theoverall odds ratio for acoustic neuroma associated with regular mobile phone use was 1.0 (95% confidence interval 0.6 –1.5). Ten years after the start of mobile phone use the estimates relative risk increased to 1.9 (0.9 – 4.1); when restricting to tumors on the same side of the head as the phone was normally used, the relative risk was 3.9 (1.6 –9.5). Conclusions: Our findings do not indicate anincreased risk of acoustic neuroma related to short-term mobile phone use after a short latency period. However, our data suggest an increased risk of acoustic neuroma associated with mobile phone use of at least 10 years’ duration. (Epidemiology 2004;15: 653– 659)

head, the parotid gland, and the vestibular portion of the eighth cranial nerve where acoustic neuromas arise.1,2 Six studies haveinvestigated the association between mobile phone use and acoustic neuroma, with inconsistent results.3– 8 All available studies are limited by a small number of exposed cases and a short follow-up since the time hand-held mobile phones first became available. In Sweden, mobile phone use became common in the general population relatively early; handheld mobile phones were introduced at the end of the1980s with an exponential increase of users during the 1990s.9 Slightly less than 6% of the population used mobile phones in 1990, 23% in 1995, and over 80% today. Therefore, a study based on the Swedish population will have a large proportion of long-term users, which is crucial for the possibility of detecting any increased risk of tumors related to long-term mobile phone use. The studyreported here is part of the INTERPHONE study,10 an international collaborative case-control study of brain tumors, acoustic neuroma, and parotid gland tumors in relation to mobile phone use. We report here results for acoustic neuroma; results for the other outcomes will be reported separately.

Study Population

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f radiofrequency exposure from mobile phone use increases the risk of cancer,acoustic neuroma would be of potential concern. The exposure from mobile phones is concentrated in the head close to the handset; exposure is relatively high only for the glial and meningeal tissue closest to the surface of the

A population-based case-control study was conducted including all persons age 20 to 69 years who were residents of 3 geographical areas covered by the regional CancerRegistries in Stockholm, Goteborg, and Lund (a population ¨ totaling 3.1 million). The study was approved by the Ethical Committee at Karolinska Institutet.

Editors’ note: A commentary on this article appears on page 651. Submitted 16 June 2004; final version accepted 26 July 2004. From the *Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; and the †Department of MedicalEpidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Sources of financial support: European Union Fifth Framework Program, “Quality of Life and Management of living Resources” (contract QLK4CT-1999-01563), the Swedish Research Council, and the International Union against Cancer (UICC). Correspondence: Stefan Lonn, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karo¨ linska Institutet,...