Mobile phone use and risk of intracranial tumors: a consistency analysis.
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Date
2014-01-09
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Abstract
A meta analysis of studies on intracranial tumors and mobile phone use published by the end of 2012 was performed to evaluate the overall consistency of findings assess the sensitivity of results to changes in the dataset and try to detect the sources of between study heterogeneity Twenty nine papers met our inclusion criteria These papers reported on 47 eligible studies 17 on glioma 15 on meningioma 15 on acoustic neuroma consisting of either primary investigations or pooled analyses Five combinations of non overlapping studies per outcome were identified The combined relative risks cRRs in long term mobile phone users 10 years ranged between 0 98 0 75 1 28 and 1 11 0 86 1 44 for meningioma with little heterogeneity across studies High heterogeneity was detected across estimates of glioma and acoustic neuroma risk in long term users with cRRs ranging between 1 19 95 CI 0 86 1 64 and 1 40 0 96 2 04 and from 1 14 0 65 1 99 to 1 33 0 65 2 73 respectively A meta regression of primary studies showed that the methodological differences embedded in the variable study group explained most of the overall heterogeneity in results Summary risk estimates based on heterogeneous findings should not be over interpreted Overall the results of our study detract from the hypothesis that mobile phone use affects the occurrence of intracranial tumors However reproducibility or lack of is just one clue in the critical appraisal of epidemiological evidence Based on other considerations such as the limited knowledge currently available on risk beyond 15 years from first exposure or following mobile phone use started in childhood the pursuance of epidemiological surveillance is warranted