A new analysis of already-published studies points to a tumor risk following long-term use of cell phones. This meta-analysis by a joint Korean-U.S. team of 13 past studies was published yesterday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Its conclusions support two previous similar efforts: All three indicate a 20-25% increase in tumors after ten or more years of cell phone use.
"I went into this really dubious that anything was going on," Joel Moskowitz of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, told the Los Angeles Times. "Overall, you find no difference. But when you start teasing the studies apart and doing these subgroup analyses, you do find there is reason to be concerned." Moskowitz is one of the coauthors of the new study; the lead author is Seung-Kwon Myung of South Korea's National Cancer Center.
The Korean and U.S. researchers argue that the epidemiological studies by Lennart Hardell, of Sweden's Örebro University, are of a higher quality than those from the Interphone project.
A team from the University of Utah published the first meta-analysis with long-term exposure data two years ago. Hardell's group published the second last year.
Still no word on when the Interphone group will release its paper on brain tumor risks.
