Case-control study on cellular and cordless telephones and the risk for acoustic neuroma or meningioma in patients diagnosed 2000-2003

Abstract

We performed a case-control study on the use of cellular and cordless telephones and the risk for brain tumors. We report the results for benign brain tumors with data from 413 cases (89% response rate), 305 with meningioma, 84 with acoustic neuroma, 24 with other types and 692 controls (84% response rate). For meningioma, analogue phones yielded odds ratio (OR) = 1.7, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.97-3.0, increasing to OR = 2.1, 95% CI = 1.1-4.3 with a >10-year latency period. Also digital cellular phones and cordless phones increased the risk to some extent. For acoustic neuroma, analogue phones gave OR = 4.2, 95% CI = 1.8-10 increasing to OR = 8.4, 95% CI = 1.6-45 with a >15-year latency period, but based on low numbers. Digital phones yielded OR = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.05-3.8, whereas for cordless phones OR was not significantly increased. In the multivariate analysis, analogue phones represented a significant risk factor for acoustic neuroma.