Cellular telephones and risk for brain tumors: A population-based, incident case-control study

Christensen, HC; Schüz, J; Kosteljanetz, M; Poulsen, HS; Boice, JD. Jr; McLaughlin, JK; Johansen, C.

Neurology 64: 1189-1195, 2005

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.