[Cell Phones and Risk of brain and acoustic nerve tumours: the French INTERPHONE case-control study.]
Hours M, Bernard M, Montestrucq L, Arslan M, Bergeret A, Deltour I, Cardis E. · 2007
View Original AbstractHeavy cell phone users showed increased brain tumor risk trends despite overall 'no significant risk' findings.
Plain English Summary
French researchers studied 596 brain tumor patients and matched controls to investigate whether cell phone use increases cancer risk. They found no statistically significant increased risk for gliomas, meningiomas, or acoustic neuromas among regular cell phone users. However, the heaviest users showed a concerning trend toward higher glioma risk, though the study lacked sufficient statistical power to draw definitive conclusions.
Why This Matters
This French component of the landmark INTERPHONE study reveals a critical pattern that appears throughout EMF research: while overall results show no significant cancer risk, the heaviest users consistently demonstrate elevated risk signals. What this means for you is that the 'no significant risk' headline doesn't tell the complete story. The researchers themselves acknowledged their study's limited statistical power and emphasized that the increased glioma risk among heavy users 'need to be verified' in larger analyses. The reality is that studies like this often lack the power to detect real effects, especially when industry influence shapes study design. This pattern of elevated risk among the highest exposure groups has appeared repeatedly in brain tumor research, suggesting that our current safety standards may not adequately protect the heaviest users who represent tomorrow's typical exposure levels.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Study Details
To evaluate the relationship between the use of cell phones and the development of tumors of the head, a multicentric international study (INTERPHONE), coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, was carried out in 13 countries. This publication reports the results of the French part of the INTERPHONE study.
INTERPHONE is a case-control study focused on tumors of the brain and central nervous system: glioma...
Regular cell phone use was not associated with an increased risk of neuroma (OR=0,92; 95% confidence...
No significant increased risk for glioma, meningioma or neuroma was observed among cell phone users participating in Interphone. The statistical power of the study is limited, however. Our results, suggesting the possibility of an increased risk among the heaviest users, therefore need to be verified in the international INTERPHONE analyses.
Show BibTeX
@article{m_2007_cell_phones_and_risk_2208,
author = {Hours M and Bernard M and Montestrucq L and Arslan M and Bergeret A and Deltour I and Cardis E.},
title = {[Cell Phones and Risk of brain and acoustic nerve tumours: the French INTERPHONE case-control study.]},
year = {2007},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17851009/},
}