Mobile phone use and risks of overall and 25 site-specific cancers: a prospective study from the UK Biobank Study
Zhang Y, Zhang Y, Ye Z, Yang S, Liu M, Wu Q, Zhou C, He P, Gan X, Qin X. Mobile phone use and risks of overall and 25 site-specific cancers: a prospective study from the UK Biobank Study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev (2023). doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-23-0766/
Published online October 23, 2023.
Abstract
Background: The association between mobile phone use and incident cancers remains uncertain. We aimed to investigate the relationships of mobile phone use with incident overall and 25 site-specific cancers in men and women.
Methods: 431,861 participants aged 38-73 years without prior cancers were included from the UK Biobank. Of these, 46.7% were male. Participants who used a mobile phone at least once per week to make or receive calls were defined as mobile phone users. The study outcomes were incident overall and 25 site-specific cancers.
Results: During a median follow-up of 10.7 years, 35,401 (17.5%) men and 30,865 (13.4%) women developed overall cancer. Mobile phone use was significantly associated with higher risks of incident overall cancer (HR, 1.09; 95%CI: 1.06-1.12), nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) (HR, 1.08; 95%CI: 1.03-1.14), urinary tract cancer (HR, 1.18; 95%CI:1.05-1.32) and prostate cancer (HR, 1.19; 95%CI: 1.13-1.25) in men, and incident overall cancer (HR, 1.03; 95%CI: 1.00-1.06), NMSC (HR, 1.07; 95%CI: 1.01-1.13), and vulva cancer (HR,1.74; 95%CI: 1.00-3.02) in women, but not with other cancers. Among mobile phone users, there was a dose-response relationship of length of mobile phone use with incident NMSC in men and women, and prostate cancer in men (all P for trend<0.05).
Conclusions: There was a dose-response relationship of length of mobile phone use with incident NMSC in men and women, and prostate cancer in men. Impact: Our findings underscore the importance of limiting mobile phone use or keeping a distance from mobile phone for primary prevention of NMSC and prostate cancer.
Dr. Devra Davis, President of Environmental Health Trust stated, “Wireless radiation is a human carcinogen. This study adds to the numerous studies confirming that cell phone radiation is not safe. Phones should not be in your pants pocket.” Davis pointed to numerous ways people can reduce exposure from homes and Wi-Fi at healthytechhome.org.
Dr. Joel Moskowitz sent excerpts
Among mobile phone users, there was a significantly positive dose-response relationship of length of mobile phone use (≤1, 2-4, 5-8, and >8 years) with incident overall cancer in both men (P for trend <0.001) and women (P for trend =0.025), incident NMSC in both men (P for trend <0.001) and women (P for trend =0.004), and prostate cancer (P for trend <0.001) in men (Table 2), but not with urinary tract
cancer in men and vulva cancer in women (Table 2). There was only a slight difference in follow-up time among different groups of length of mobile phone use (all differences < 0.5 year; Supplemental Table 9), so the groups classified by length of mobile phone use based on baseline assessments should not have changed substantially during follow-up. In addition, treating length of mobile phone use as a time-dependent variable did not significantly change the results (Supplemental Table 10)….
cancer in men and vulva cancer in women (Table 2). There was only a slight difference in follow-up time among different groups of length of mobile phone use (all differences < 0.5 year; Supplemental Table 9), so the groups classified by length of mobile phone use based on baseline assessments should not have changed substantially during follow-up. In addition, treating length of mobile phone use as a time-dependent variable did not significantly change the results (Supplemental Table 10)….
Findings of the current study imply a possible causal relationship of mobile phone use with incident NMSC and prostate cancer: (1) Dose-response relationship of anatomical distance: skin is the first organ to be exposed to RF-EMF. When carrying a mobile phone on the belt or in a pants pocket, it is closer to the prostate. Previous studies have shown that the distance of the source of RF-EMF from the tissue or organ is one of the determinants of corresponding specific absorption rate 21, 22, and thus the relatively close distance of skin and prostate with mobile phones may partly explain the observed increase risks of NMSC and prostate cancer; (2) Temporal relationship: there was a significant association of mobile phone use at baseline with the risks of NMSC and prostate cancer during the 10.7 years of follow-up; (3) Dose-response relationship of exposure time: among mobile phone users, there was a significantly positive dose-response relationship of length of mobile phone use with incident NMSC and prostate cancer. In addition, we found that length of mobile phone use, rather than weekly usage of mobile phone, was associated with incident cancers, suggesting that long-term exposure to RF-EMF might be more important in terms of the risk of incident cancers than short-term, high dose exposure to RF-EMF from making or receiving calls. However, more studies are needed to further confirm our results and elucidate the underlying biological mechanisms….
In conclusion, the current study found that there was a positive dose-response relationship between length of mobile phone use and risk of incident NMSC in both men and women and prostate cancer in men. The potential association of mobile phone use with the risk of urinary tract cancer in men and vulva cancer in women needs to be further verified. If further confirmed, our findings underscore the importance of limiting mobile phone use or keeping a distance from mobile phone for primary prevention of NMSC and prostate cancer in the general population.
Additional facts:
Based on Table 2 (Model 2) the hazard ratio for more than 8 years of cell phone use was 1.23 (95%CI: 1.08, 1.40; p=.002) for nonmelanoma skin cancer in men and 1.17 (95%CI: 1.03,1.34; p=0.016) in women and was 1.30 (95%CI: 1.14, 1.49; p<.001) for prostate cancer in men.
In the U.S. about 3.3 million men and women are diagnosed each year with nonmelanoma skin cancer (https://www.cancer.org/
