Originally published as JCO Early Release 10.1200/JCO.2008.21.6366 on October 13 2009

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Mobile Phone Use and Risk of Tumors: A Meta-Analysis

From the Smoking Cessation Clinic, Center for Cancer Prevention and Detection; Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Control Research Institute, National Cancer Center, Goyang; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, Ewha Womans University; Department of Family Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea; and Center for Family and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.

Corresponding author: Seung-Kwon Myung, MD, MS, 111 Jungbalsan-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang, Gyeonggi-do, 410-769, Republic of Korea; e-mail: msk{at}ncc.re.kr.

Purpose Case-control studies have reported inconsistent findings regarding the association between mobile phone use and tumor risk. We investigated these associations using a meta-analysis.

Methods We searched MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library in August 2008. Two evaluators independently reviewed and selected articles based on predetermined selection criteria.

Results Of 465 articles meeting our initial criteria, 23 case-control studies, which involved 37,916 participants (12,344 patient cases and 25,572 controls), were included in the final analyses. Compared with never or rarely having used a mobile phone, the odds ratio for overall use was 0.98 for malignant and benign tumors (95% CI, 0.89 to 1.07) in a random-effects meta-analysis of all 23 studies. However, a significant positive association (harmful effect) was observed in a random-effects meta-analysis of eight studies using blinding, whereas a significant negative association (protective effect) was observed in a fixed-effects meta-analysis of 15 studies not using blinding. Mobile phone use of 10 years or longer was associated with a risk of tumors in 13 studies reporting this association (odds ratio = 1.18; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.34). Further, these findings were also observed in the subgroup analyses by methodologic quality of study. Blinding and methodologic quality of study were strongly associated with the research group.

Conclusion The current study found that there is possible evidence linking mobile phone use to an increased risk of tumors from a meta-analysis of low-biased case-control studies. Prospective cohort studies providing a higher level of evidence are needed.

Written on behalf of the Korean Meta-Analysis (KORMA) Study Group.

Supported in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through Cooperative Agreement No. U48/DP000033 (D.D.M., G.K., J.M.M.).

The contents of the article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.

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