Epidemiological Study (case-control study)

Acoustic neuroma risk in relation to mobile telephone use: Results of the INTERPHONE international case-control study. epidemiol.

PubMed Entry

Journal web site

Aim of study (according to author)
An international case-control study (INTERPHONE) was conducted in 13 countries to determine whether mobile phone use increases the risk of brain tumors.
Background/further details:
The INTERPHONE study was initiated as an international set of case-control studies conducted in 13 countries (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the UK) focussing on four types of tumors (glioma, meningioma, acoustic neurinoma, and parotid gland tumor) in tissues that most absorb radiofrequency energy emitted by mobile phones. In the present publication the results of the analysis of the acoustic neuroma risk are presented, an earlier publication 18215 covers the results for the risk of glioma and meningioma.
Sensitivity analyses were performed to detect potential sources for bias.
Regular use of a mobile phone was defined as at least once a week for at least six months.

Endpoint/type of risk estimation

• brain tumor: acoustic neuroma

Exposure

• mobile phone, personal exposure
• type of exposure: personal
• assessment by questionnaire (mobile phone use, including start and end dates of use, frequency and laterality of use, type of phone, use of hands-free devices, and other factors, such as type of telephone network)
• assessment by interview (face-to-face interview with the study subject or a proxy or telephone interview)
• assessment by calculation (lifetime cumulative numbers of hours of phone use and numbers of calls)

Population

• case group
  men and women, aged from 30 to 59 years
  diagnosis: acoustic neuroma, histologically confirmed or based on unequivocal diagnostic imaging
  observation period: 2000 - 2004
  study location: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the UK
  source of data: neurological and neurosurgical facilities in the study regions
  
  
• control group
  selection: population-based
  matching: sex, age, ethnic origin (only in Israel), 1:2 (case:control)
  

Study size	cases	controls
number eligible	1,361	14,354
number participating	1,121	7658
number available for analysis	1,105	2,145

Statistically significant results 

Statistical analysis using conditional logistic regression (adjusted for age, sex, education, study centre, ethnicity in Israel), sensitivity analyses

Results/conclusion (according to author)
Overall, no increased risk for acoustic neuroma was observed with ever having been a regular mobile phone user (group 2) and for persons with 10 years and longer mobile phone use (group 7). No trend of increasing ORs with increasing cumulative call time or cumulative number of calls was observed, with the lowest OR (0.48; CI 0.30-0.78) observed in the second highest group of cumulative call time (735 -1639.9 h). In the highest group (≥ 1640 h) of cumulative call time, the OR was 1.32 (CI 0.88-1.97); but there were implausible values reported in this group (e.g., mobile phone use more than 5 h/day). Similar results were observed when restricting the analysis at 5 years before the reference date (to exclude possible effects of prodomal symptoms on mobile phone use).
In general, odds ratios were not greater in subjects who reported usual phone use on the same side of the head as their tumor (ipsilateral) than in persons with contralateral use, but it was greater in those with 1640 and more cumulative hours of use.
The authors concluded that there was no increase in risk of acoustic neuroma with ever regular use of a mobile phone or for users who began regular use 10 years or more before the reference date. Elevated odds ratios observed at the highest level of cumulative call time could be due to chance, reporting bias or a causal effect. As acoustic neuroma is usually a slowly growing tumour, the interval between introduction of mobile phones and occurrence of the tumor might have been too short to observe an effect, if there is one.

(Study character: epidemiological study, case-control study)

Study funded by

• Academy of Finland
• Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC), France
• Australian Research Council (ARC)
• Bouygues Telecom, France
• Canada Research Chairs (Chaires de Recherche du Canada), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
• Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA; Association canadienne des télécommunications sans fil (ACTS)), Canada
• Cancer Society of New Zealand
• Department of Health, UK
• Deutsches Mobilfunk Forschungsprogramm (DMF; German Mobile Phone Research Programme) at Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS)
• Emil Aaltonen Foundation, Finland
• European Union (EU)/European Commission
• GSM Association, UK/Ireland
• Guzzo Environment-Cancer Chair (University of Montréal) in partnership with Cancer Research Society (CRS) undertaken by the Environment-Cancer Fund, Canada
• Hawkes Bay Medical Research Foundation (HBMR), New Zealand
• Health and Safety Executive, UK
• Health Research Council of New Zealand
• International Union against Cancer (UICC; Union Internationale Contre le Cancer), Switzerland
• MAIFOR Program (Mainzer Forschungsförderungsprogramm) of the University of Mainz, Germany
• Ministerium für Umwelt und Naturschutz, Landwirtschaft und Verbraucherschutz, Nordrhein-Westfalen (Ministry for the Environment of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia), Germany
• Ministerium für Umwelt und Verkehr, Baden-Württemberg (Ministry for the Environment and Traffic of the state of Baden-Württemberg), Germany
• Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan
• Mobile Manufacturers Forum (MMF), Belgium
• Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR), UK
• Orange
• O2
• Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources program of European Union
• Scottish Executive/Scottish Ministers, UK
• SFR, France
• Swedish Cancer Society (Cancerfonden)
• Swedish Research Council (VR)
• T-Mobile
• Vodafone
• Waikato Medical Research Foundation (WMRF), New Zealand
• Wellington Medical Research Foundation (WMRF), New Zealand
• 3

• Little MP et al. (2012): Mobile phone use and glioma risk: comparison of epidemiological study results...
• Schüz J et al. (2011): Long-Term Mobile Phone Use and the Risk of Vestibular Schwannoma: A Danish...
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