Interphone Study Inconclusive on Cellphones’ Cancer Risk

The long-awaited Interphone study, looking at whether heavy cellphone use causes central nervous system tumors, produced no conclusive results, according to a report to be released Tuesday in Geneva. Wireless industry groups said the results largely confirm what other studies have shown.

The 10-year study was done by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer and involved 12,848 participants, 5,150 with meningioma or glioma tumors, possibly linked to cellphone use. Meningioma is a more common but often benign tumor. Glioma is a rarer but deadlier cancer. Thirteen countries, not including the U.S., participated in the study. Heavy use was defined as operating a device for 30 minutes or more of calls per day.

"An increased risk of brain cancer is not established from the data from Interphone,” IARC Director Christopher Wild said, summarizing the results of the study. “However, observations at the highest level of cumulative call time and the changing patterns of mobile phone use since the period studied by Interphone, particularly in young people, mean that further investigation of mobile phone use and brain cancer risk is merited."

"There were suggestions of an increased risk of glioma, and much less so meningioma, in the highest decile of cumulative call time, in subjects who reported usual phone use on the same side of the head as their tumour and, for glioma, for tumours in the temporal lobe,” the report concludes. “Biases and errors limit the strength of the conclusions that can be drawn from these analyses and prevent a causal interpretation.” The Interphone study will continue with additional analyses of cellphone use and tumors of the acoustic nerve and parotid gland.

"Interphone’s conclusion of no overall increased risk of brain cancer is consistent with conclusions reached in an already large body of scientific research on this subject,” CTIA spokesman John Walls said. “This includes extensive research in laboratories, which has not identified any known biologic mechanism by which cell phones can cause brain cancer. … As with any study, scientific organizations will review the Interphone study in the context of the significant body of research and published literature on the safety of cellphones. CTIA and the wireless industry support continuing efforts of public health specialists and expert scientists in this area."

The GSMA, a group of GSM carriers around the world, said the results are “in accordance with the large body of existing research and many expert reviews that consistently conclude that there is no established health risk from radio signals that comply with international safety recommendations.” Jack Rowley, GSMA director for research and sustainability, said, “The results reported today underscore the importance of utilising complete and thorough data analysis before reaching conclusions. The researchers warn against focusing on the extreme values and that interpretation should be based on the overall balance of the evidence.”