The Association between Cellular Phone Usage and Brain Neoplasms

Background: The association between cellular phones and brain tumors is a question that is frequently asked of the medical and scientific community. The prevalence of cell phone use and the significant morbidity and mortality of brain tumors contribute to this pairing. Cell phones are known to emit radio frequency energy in the form of both ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation is known to be within X-rays, which do have an association with cancer. Objective: To assess if the use of the cell phone has an association with brain tumors. Methods: The searches performed through PubMed were conducted to find studies that sought to provide evidence as to whether or not increased cell phone exposure contributed to the development of brain tumors. Also searched for was increased regional metabolism of the brain with the use of the cell phone switched in the on position. Studies were restricted to being published during or after the year 2000 and presented in the English language. Results: The studies largely support the conclusion that cell phone usage does not lead to the development of brain cancer. Studies employed different strategies, such as the prospective cohort and case-control studies to reach this conclusion. Both studies failed to show statistically significant evidence that cell phones were associated with brain tumors of the central nervous system. Conclusions: Questions raised by crossover studies demonstrating increased regional brain glucose metabolism continue to remain largely unanswered by current research and remain a starting point for future research. The prevalence of the issue strengthens its position among others as a matter that the medical community must continue to address to meet the needs of an increasingly exposed patient population. The overall hypothesis that cell phone usage does not lead to the development of brain tumors was supported.