The Intracranial Distribution of Gliomas in Relation to Exposure From Mobile Phones: Analyses From the INTERPHONE Study

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Kirsten Frederiksen
  • Joachim Schüz
  • Elisabeth Cardis
  • Bruce Armstrong
  • Jack Siemiatycki
  • Daniel R Krewski
  • Mary L McBride
  • Anssi Auvinen
  • Martine Hours
  • Maria Blettner
  • Siegal Sadetzki
  • Susanna Lagorio
  • Naohito Yamaguchi
  • Alistair Woodward
  • Tore Tynes
  • Maria Feychting
  • Sarah J Fleming
  • Anthony J Swerdlow

When investigating the association between brain tumors and use of mobile telephones, accurate data on tumor position are essential, due to the highly localized absorption of energy in the human brain from the radio-frequency fields emitted. We used a point process model to investigate this association using information that included tumor localization data from the INTERPHONE Study (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom). Our main analysis included 792 regular mobile phone users diagnosed with a glioma between 2000 and 2004. Similar to earlier results, we found a statistically significant association between the intracranial distribution of gliomas and the self-reported location of the phone. When we accounted for the preferred side of the head not being exclusively used for all mobile phone calls, the results were similar. The association was independent of the cumulative call time and cumulative number of calls. However, our model used reported side of mobile phone use, which is potentially influenced by recall bias. The point process method provides an alternative to previously used epidemiologic research designs when one is including localization in the investigation of brain tumors and mobile phone use.

Original languageEnglish
JournalAmerican Journal of Epidemiology
Volume184
Issue number11
Pages (from-to)818-828
Number of pages11
ISSN0002-9262
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2016

ID: 168628415