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My Cancer Story: Cell Phone Radiation and Parotid Gland Cancer

Apr 13, 2021

National Toxicology Program Cell Phone Study

Research on long term exposure to cell phones has found increased risk for tumors of the parotid gland. EHT is sharing sent in by a women wanting to raise awareness on the issue. May her story save lives. 

My cancer story.

I found a lump on the left side of my face in front of my left ear in late 2019.

In early 2020 after having a CT, MRI, and Biopsy, I was diagnosed with Mucoepidermoid.
Mucoepidermoid is a carcinoma, which is a malignant tumor of the parotid gland.

On July 20, 2020
I underwent a left superficial parotidectomy with facial nerve preservation and left selective level II lymph node dissection at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville le, FL.

I have used a cell phone for close to 20 years. I started using iPhone about 8-10 years ago, with my most recent phone being an iPhone 7 that I have used for the past two years.

Daily my average phone time is 1-2 hours of holding the phone to my left ear. I would talk with my elderly mother daily for 30 mins to 1 hour, sometimes a few times a day. I would not use the speaker because she could not hear me. So I would hold the phone to my left ear. I would also talk to my older sister several times a day. Sometimes 30-45 mins a day and would hold the phone to my left ear as well.

I would always favor my left ear because I am right-handed, and if I were doing things while talking on the phone, I would do other things with my prominent hand and hold the phone with my left hand to my ear to talk to her. Also, the tilting neck position always felt more comfortable on the left side.

Unaware of the risks and warnings of cell phone use, I never knew that I was supposed to hold the phone so many inches away from my ear when talking. And NOT to hold the phone directly to your ear. I did not even know that cell phones emit radiation. If there were more warning labels that were visible on or in the box and not tucked away in the fine print, I might have seen it and been more aware, and my cancer could have been prevented.

It is

very important for people to use the speaker or a headset and not place the phone directly to their ear when talking on a cell phone. Dig in your box and read the fine print warnings. Hopefully, the laws will change, and the companies will have no choice but to make people more aware of the dangers of cell phone use. Just like tobacco products have warnings for the consumer to see, so should cell phones!!!

This is the outcome of holding a cell phone to my ear.

Signed an Eight Month Cancer Survivor

Published Research

Al-Qahtani K. Mobile Phone Use and the Risk of Parotid Gland Tumors: A Retrospective Case-Control Study. Gulf J Oncolog. 2016 Jan;1(20):71-8. PMID: 27050182.

  • Conclusions: Overall, an association between the exposure of cellular phone use for more than 1 hour daily and parotid tumor was observed. This association should be interpreted with caution because of the relatively small sample size.

Miller AB, Morgan LL, Udasin I, Davis DL. Cancer epidemiology update, following the 2011 IARC evaluation of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (Monograph 102). Available online Sep 6, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2018.06.043

  • Increased risk of brain, vestibular nerve and salivary gland tumors are associated with mobile phone use.

de Siqueira EC, de Souza FT, Gomez RS, Gomes CC, de Souza RP. Does cell phone use increase the chances of parotid gland tumor development? A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Oral Pathol Med. 2016 Dec 9. doi: 10.1111/jop.12531.

  • RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Initial screening included 37 articles and three were included in meta-analysis. Using three independent samples including 5087 subjects from retrospective case-control studies, cell phone use seems to be associated with greater odds (1.28, 95%- confidence interval 1.09 – 1.51) to develop salivary gland tumor. Results should be read with caution due to the limited number of studies available and their retrospective design.

Bortkiewicz, A., E. Gadzicka, and W. Szymczak. Mobile Phone Use and Risk for Intracranial Tumors and Salivary Gland Tumors – A Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, vol. 30, no. 1, 2017, pp. 27–43.

  • Twenty four studies (26 846 cases, 50 013 controls) were included into the meta-analysis. A significantly higher risk of an intracranial tumor (all types) was noted for the period of mobile phone use over 10 years (odds ratio (OR) = 1.324, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.028-1.704), and for the ipsilateral location (OR = 1.249, 95% CI: 1.022-1.526). The results support the hypothesis that long-term use of mobile phone increases risk of intracranial tumors, especially in the case of ipsilateral exposure. Further studies are needed to confirm this relationship. Int J Occup Med Environ Health 2017;30(1)27-43.

Duan Y, Zhang HZ, Bu RF. Correlation between cellular phone use and epithelial parotid gland malignancies. Int J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2011 Sep;40(9):966-72. doi: 10.1016/j.ijom.2011.03.007. Epub 2011 Apr 6. PMID: 21474287.

  • The results suggest a possible dose-response relationship of cellular phone use with epithelial parotid gland malignancy. The authors suggest that the association of cellular phone use and epithelial parotid gland malignancy and mucoepidermoid carcinoma requires further investigation with large prospective studies.

Bhargava S, Motwani MB, Patni VM. Effect of handheld mobile phone use on parotid gland salivary flow rate and volume. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol. 2012 Aug;114(2):200-6. doi: 10.1016/j.oooo.2012.03.001. PMID: 22769405.

  • Results: A significant increase in salivary flow rate along with increased blood flow rate and volume of the parotid glands of the side where mobile phones are frequently placed was observed in the heavy user group.
  • Conclusions: Heavy users of mobile phones demonstrated increased salivary flow rate, blood flow rate, and volume of parotid glands.

Fatma M. Ghoneim, Eetmad A. Arafat. Histological and histochemical study of the protective role of rosemary extract against harmful effect of cell phone electromagnetic radiation on the parotid glands. Acta Histochemica, 118(5):478-485. June 2016.

  • we aimed to investigate the histological and histochemical changes of the parotid glands of rats exposed to mobile phone and study the possible protective role of rosemary against its harmful effect. Forty adult male albino rats were used in this study. They were classified into 4 equal groups. Group I (control), group II (control receiving rosemary), group III (mobile phone exposed group) and group IV (mobile exposed, rosemary treated group). Parotid glands were dissected out for histological and histochemical study. Moreover, measurement of oxidative stress markers; malondialdehyde (MDA) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) was done. The results of this study revealed that rosemary has protective effect through improving the histological and histochemical picture of the parotid gland in addition of its antioxidant effect. It could be concluded from the current study, that exposure of parotid gland of rat models to electromagnetic radiation of mobile phone resulted in structural changes at the level of light and electron microscopic examination which could be explained by oxidative stress effect of mobile phones