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Cancer & Tumors

Mobile phone use and risk of glioma in adults: case-control study.

No Effects Found

Hepworth SJ, Schoemaker MJ, Muir KR, Swerdlow AJ, van Tongeren MJ, McKinney PA. · 2006

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This study found no increased glioma risk from mobile phones, but exposure levels were much lower than today's smartphone usage.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

Researchers studied 966 glioma patients and 1,716 healthy controls to see if mobile phone use increases brain tumor risk. They found no overall increased risk of glioma from phone use, with an odds ratio of 0.94 (meaning slightly lower risk, though not statistically significant). However, they noted some curious findings about tumor location that they attributed to recall bias rather than real biological effects.

Study Details

To investigate the risk of glioma in adults in relation to mobile phone use.

966 people aged 18 to 69 years diagnosed with a glioma from 1 December 2000 to 29 February 2004 and ...

The overall odds ratio for regular phone use was 0.94 (95% confidence interval 0.78 to 1.13). There ...

Use of a mobile phone, either in the short or medium term, is not associated with an increased risk of glioma. This is consistent with most but not all published studies. The complementary positive and negative risks associated with ipsilateral and contralateral use of the phone in relation to the side of the tumour might be due to recall bias.

Cite This Study
Hepworth SJ, Schoemaker MJ, Muir KR, Swerdlow AJ, van Tongeren MJ, McKinney PA. (2006). Mobile phone use and risk of glioma in adults: case-control study. BMJ.332(7546):883-7, 2006.
Show BibTeX
@article{sj_2006_mobile_phone_use_and_3076,
  author = {Hepworth SJ and Schoemaker MJ and Muir KR and Swerdlow AJ and van Tongeren MJ and McKinney PA.},
  title = {Mobile phone use and risk of glioma in adults: case-control study.},
  year = {2006},
  
  url = {https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1440611/},
}

Quick Questions About This Study

A 2006 case-control study of 966 glioma patients found no increased risk from mobile phone use. The overall odds ratio was 0.94, indicating slightly lower risk, though not statistically significant. Regular phone use showed no association with brain tumor development.
Yes, the 2006 Hepworth study found evidence of recall bias in phone-brain tumor research. Patients reported higher phone use on the tumor side and lower use on the opposite side, creating artificial risk patterns that researchers attributed to memory distortion rather than real effects.
The 2006 study found no relationship between glioma risk and duration of phone use. Researchers examined time since first use, lifetime years of use, and cumulative hours, finding no increased brain tumor risk with longer or more frequent mobile phone use.
The 2006 study found a 24% increased risk when phones were used on the same side as tumors, but researchers concluded this was recall bias, not a real effect. A corresponding 25% risk reduction on the opposite side supported this bias explanation.
According to the 2006 Hepworth study of nearly 2,700 participants, mobile phone use shows no increased glioma risk in short or medium term use. This finding aligns with most published research on mobile phone safety and brain tumor development.