Relationship of testicular cancer incidence and cellular phone use

• Published in: Journal of clinical oncology Vol. 30; no. 15_suppl; p. e12008
• Main Authors: Somer, Robert A., Surapaneni, Rakesh, Beach, Douglas Francis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 20.05.2012
• ISSN: 0732-183X; 1527-7755
• DOI: 10.1200/jco.2012.30.15_suppl.e12008

Abstract only e12008 Background: Because of the ubiquitous usage of cellphones, any health consequences, if found, would be of paramount importance. Many have questioned the relationship of cellphone radiofrequency waves and malignancies such as brain tumors. Because men usually store their phones in close proximately to the testicles, we analyzed the relationship between cell phone usage and testicular cancer. Methods: Testicular cancer data was obtained from SEER-9 United States Population Data Base of the National Cancer Institute. Cell phone subscription data was obtained from the World Health Organization publication. Initial data analysis was done from 1991 to 2008, with subsequent age specific and other analyses performed from 1999 to 2008. Trends over time were calculated as Annual Percentage Change of incidence rates (APC) by using log linear models. Results: Rates of United States mobile subscriptions increased exponentially since the late 1990’s reaching 88.87 percent of the population by 2008. There was no statistically significant change in incidence rates of all testicular tumors (APC 0.7; CI -0.2, 0.7), Seminoma (APC 0.2; CI 0.8, 1.1) and non-Seminoma (APC 1.4; CI -0.6, 3.4) from 1999 to 2008. In the age specific analysis, three groups showed an increase in incidence rates: all testicular cancer age 25-34 (APC 2; CI 0.6, 3.4), All testicular cancer age greater than 45 (APC 1.7; CI 0.1, 3.3) and Seminoma age 25-34 (APC 2.1; CI 0.6, 3.7). All these changes were only minor percentage increase when compared to mobile subscriptions. Conclusions: Based on incidence data, there is no convincing evidence of increased risk of testicular cancer from cell phone use. Given possible lag time incidence, continued monitoring is needed.