Mobile Phone Use and Time Trend of Brain Cancer Incidence Rate in Korea

2021 · No effect · Low evidence

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No effectLow evidencePaper 1029

Using national time-trend data, glioma and glioblastoma ASRs significantly increased over time, with increases particularly noted in older age groups (≥60 years). Despite increasing mobile phone subscriber numbers, the study reported no association between mo…

Study snapshot

Publicationmanual · 2021

Study typeecological

Reported directionNo effect

Evidence ratingLow

Abstract

Mobile Phone Use and Time Trend of Brain Cancer Incidence Rate in Korea Kyung-Hwa Choi, Johyun Ha, Sanghyuk Bae, Ae-Kyoung Lee, Hyung-Do Choi, Young Hwan Ahn, Mina Ha, Hyunjoo Joo, Ho-Jang Kwon, Kyu-Won Jung, Mobile Phone Use and Time Trend of Brain Cancer Incidence Rate in Korea. 20 September 2021. /doi: 10.1002/bem.22373. Abstract This study evaluated the time trends in mobile phone subscriber number by mobile network generation (G) and brain cancer incidence by type in Korea. We obtained data from the Information Technology Statistics of Korea (1984–2017) and Korea Central Cancer Registry (1999–2017). The average annual percent change was estimated using Joinpoint regression analysis. We evaluated 29,721 brain cancer cases with an age-standardized incidence rate (ASR) of 2.89/100,000 persons. The glioma and glioblastoma annual ASR significantly increased in 2.6% and 3.9% of males and 3.0% and 3.8% of females, respectively. The ASR for frontal lobe involvement was the highest. The ASR of gliomas of unspecified grade annually increased by 7.8%; those for unspecified topology and histology decreased. The incidence of glioma, glioblastoma, frontal, temporal, and high-grade glioma increased among those aged ≥60 years. No association was observed between the mobile phone subscriber number and brain cancer incidence in Korea. Furthermore, long-term research is warranted because of the latency period of brain cancer. Grant sponsor: ICT R&D program of MSIT/IITP [2019-0-00102, A study on public health and safety in a complex EMF environment]. My summary of results: • Glioma incidence increased over time (1999-2017) for adults aged 60 years and over. • Glioblastoma incidence increased over time for adults aged 60 years and over. • Unspecified brain tumor incidence decreased over time for adults aged 60 years and over. • High-grade glioma incidence increased over time for male and female adults aged 60 years and over. • The trend over time in standardized incidence of glioma exceeded the predicted relative risk of 1.5 based on mobile phone subscriber number. • The trend over time in standardized incidence of glioblastoma exceeded the predicted relative risk of 1.5 based on mobile phone subscriber number. • The trend over time in standardized incidence of brain cancer in the frontal lobe exceeded a predicted relative risk of 1.5 based on mobile phone subscriber number. Excerpts ... According to the type of histology, the incidence of glioma was higher than that of other types, and it was significantly increased in both sexes (AAPC [95% CI], male: 2.6% [2.1, 3.2], female: 3.0% [2.1, 3.8]), whereas those of total brain cancers were not (AAPC [95% CI], male: 0.2% [−0.3, 0.6], female: 0.1% [−0.3, 0.5]). In particular, the incidence of glioblastoma increased more than that of other gliomas. The incidence of cancers with unspecified histology statistically decreased in both sexes (AAPC [95% CI], male: 7.9% [−9.6, −6.1], female: 7.8% [−8.9, −6.7]). According to the type of topology, the ASR of frontal lobe involvement (male: 0.53, female: 0.45) was higher than that of the temporal and parietal lobes. The ASR of cancers with unspecified topology decreased by 4.6% per year in males and 3.8% per year in females, whereas that of cancers of the other lobes increased. According to the type of grade, the incidence and AAPC of high-grade gliomas were higher than those of low-grade gliomas. The ASR of gliomas of unspecified grade increased by 7.8% per year, whereas those of unspecified topology (3.8% per year) and unspecified histology (7.8% per year) decreased. ... The incidence of glioma, glioblastoma, frontal, temporal, and high-grade glioma increased among those aged ≥60 years, and increased significantly among those aged ≥70 years (AAPC [95% CI]): glioma (male: 6.9 [5.6, 8.2], female: 8.5 [6.5, 10.6]); glioblastoma (male: 8.1 [6.1, 10.2], female: 9.9 [7.3, 12.5]); frontal (male: 6.2 [4.5, 8.0], female: 6.6 [4.0, 9.4]); temporal (male: 5.8 [2.9, 8.7], female: 7.1 [4.6, 9.7]); high-grade glioma (male: 7.5 [5.8, 9.3], female: 9.2 [7.0, 11.4]). There were no differences in the trend for unspecified brain cancer by histology, topology, or grade of glioma according to age group... This study has several limitations. First, it is difficult to prove whether exposure to RF-EMF from mobile phones increases the incidence of brain cancers because this is a descriptive study. Further studies are required to evaluate the association between brain cancer incidence and mobile phone subscribers by age group, because this study shows different results for each age group, such as an increase in the incidence of brain cancer among older adults. Therefore, we could not determine whether the increase in brain cancer incidence, especially glioma and glioblastoma, was associated with an increase of mobile phone subscribers in older age groups. Second, it was not possible to calculate the predicted incidence according to the mobile phone subscription by sex and age. For this, it is better to acquire detailed information such as sex, age, and residential address of mobile phone subscribers in future studies and analyze them further. Studies have revealed a latency period of more than 30 years for cancer [Sadetzki et al., 2005]. However, data on cancer incidence are only available for approximately 20 years in Korea. Hence, further analysis is required to verify our results. This study found no evidence of an increase in brain cancer incidence associated with the increasing number of mobile phone subscribers in Korea. Further research is warranted using detailed information on mobile phone subscriptions, with research carried out for longer durations considering the latency period for brain cancer. onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Machine Enhanced Logic

AI evidence extraction

Structured fields below were generated from the paper’s abstract and metadata to make the evidence easier to inspect. Automated extraction may be incomplete or incorrect; verify important details against the original paper.

Study typeecological

Effect directionno_effect

PopulationKorea (population-level incidence registry data)

Sample size29721

ExposureRF · Mobile phone subscriber numbers by network generation (1984–2017); cancer incidence data (1999–2017)

Evidence strengthLowConfidence: 78% · Peer reviewed: unknown

Main findings

Outcomes measured

Brain cancer incidence (age-standardized incidence rate, ASR)
Glioma incidence
Glioblastoma incidence
Brain cancer incidence by topology (e.g., frontal, temporal lobes)
Glioma incidence by grade (high-grade, low-grade, unspecified grade)
Brain cancer incidence by histology/topology unspecified categories

Limitations

Descriptive/ecological design; cannot establish causality between RF-EMF exposure from mobile phones and brain cancer incidence
Could not evaluate associations between subscriber numbers and incidence by age/sex due to lack of detailed subscriber information (e.g., age, sex, address)
Predicted incidence according to mobile phone subscription could not be calculated by sex and age
Cancer latency may exceed available incidence data window (incidence data available for ~20 years; latency discussed as >30 years)

View raw extracted JSON

{
  "study_type": "ecological",
  "exposure": {
    "band": "RF",
    "source": "mobile phone",
    "frequency_mhz": null,
    "sar_wkg": null,
    "duration": "Mobile phone subscriber numbers by network generation (1984–2017); cancer incidence data (1999–2017)"
  },
  "population": "Korea (population-level incidence registry data)",
  "sample_size": 29721,
  "outcomes": [
    "Brain cancer incidence (age-standardized incidence rate, ASR)",
    "Glioma incidence",
    "Glioblastoma incidence",
    "Brain cancer incidence by topology (e.g., frontal, temporal lobes)",
    "Glioma incidence by grade (high-grade, low-grade, unspecified grade)",
    "Brain cancer incidence by histology/topology unspecified categories"
  ],
  "main_findings": "Using national time-trend data, glioma and glioblastoma ASRs significantly increased over time, with increases particularly noted in older age groups (≥60 years). Despite increasing mobile phone subscriber numbers, the study reported no association between mobile phone subscriber number and brain cancer incidence in Korea.",
  "effect_direction": "no_effect",
  "limitations": [
    "Descriptive/ecological design; cannot establish causality between RF-EMF exposure from mobile phones and brain cancer incidence",
    "Could not evaluate associations between subscriber numbers and incidence by age/sex due to lack of detailed subscriber information (e.g., age, sex, address)",
    "Predicted incidence according to mobile phone subscription could not be calculated by sex and age",
    "Cancer latency may exceed available incidence data window (incidence data available for ~20 years; latency discussed as >30 years)"
  ],
  "evidence_strength": "low",
  "confidence": 0.78,
  "peer_reviewed_likely": "unknown",
  "keywords": [
    "mobile phone",
    "subscriber number",
    "network generation",
    "RF-EMF",
    "brain cancer",
    "glioma",
    "glioblastoma",
    "incidence",
    "age-standardized incidence rate",
    "Joinpoint regression",
    "Korea Central Cancer Registry"
  ],
  "suggested_hubs": [
    {
      "slug": "mobile-phones-brain-cancer",
      "weight": 0.9,
      "reason": "Assesses mobile phone subscriber trends in relation to brain cancer (glioma/glioblastoma) incidence trends."
    }
  ]
}

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AI-extracted fields are generated from the abstract and metadata and may be incomplete or incorrect. This material is for informational purposes and is not medical advice.

Identifiers and source

DOI: 10.1002/bem.22373
PubMed: Not supplied

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