Time trend in incidence of malignant neoplasms of the central nervous system in relation to mobile phone use among young people in Japan

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This is an ecological study that investigated whether there is an increase in incidence of cancer of the central nervous system (CNS) since the introduction of mobile phones in Japan. The information on mobile phone use was gathered via internet polling from 7,550 volunteers who were born before 2005. The incidence in CNS cancer has increased significantly in men and women aged 20-29 years (annual percent change, APC = 3.9%, 95% confidence interval, 95% CI = 1.6 – 6.3 in men and APC = 12.3%, 95% CI = 3.3-22.1) and 30-39 years (APC = 2.7%, 95% CI = 1.3 – 4.1 in men and APC = 3.0%, 95% CI = 1.4 – 4.7 in women) from 1993 to 2010 in Japan. The authors also calculated the expected incidence assuming that the relative risk was 1.4 for those who used mobile phones more than 1640 h cumulatively (classified as heavy use) as reported in the INTERPHONE study. The observed incidence was lower than the expected incidence if the association reported in the INTERPHONE study was true. Hence the authors concluded that the increase in incidence of CNS cancer among young people in Japan was unlikely to be caused by heavy mobile phone use.

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