IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v22y2025i6p933-d1678267.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trends in Malignant and Benign Brain Tumor Incidence and Mobile Phone Use in the U.S. (2000–2021): A SEER-Based Study

Author

Listed:
  • Li Zhang

    (Department of Public Health Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA 17033, USA
    Center for Research on Tobacco and Health, Penn State Cancer Institute, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA 17033, USA)

  • Joshua E. Muscat

    (Department of Public Health Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA 17033, USA
    Center for Research on Tobacco and Health, Penn State Cancer Institute, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA 17033, USA)

Abstract

(1) Background: There has been an ongoing concern for several decades that radiofrequencies emitted from mobile phones are related to brain cancer risk. We calculated temporal trends in brain cancer incidence rates in adults and children and compared them to mobile phone subscription data over the same time period. (2) Methods: We analyzed the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER 22) cancer database between 2000 and 2021. Age-standardized incidence rates (ASR) per 100,000 people were calculated and the annual percentage change (APC) for malignant and benign brain cancer and vestibular schwannomas (acoustic neuromas of the 8th cranial nerve) was established. The total number of mobile phone subscriptions in the United States was plotted for the period 1985–2024. (3) Results: The APC for adolescents and adults was −0.6 ( p = 0.0004) for malignant tumors, −0.06 ( p = 0.551) for temporal lobe tumors, and 1.9 ( p = 0.00003) for benign tumors. The APC for benign acoustic neuroma was 0.09 ( p = 0.8237), suggesting that mobile phone use is unlikely to be associated with this tumor type. There was a 1200-fold increase in the number of cell phone subscriptions during this period. (4) Conclusions: These findings suggest that mobile phone use does not appear to be associated with an increased risk of brain cancer, either malignant or benign.

Suggested Citation

  • Li Zhang & Joshua E. Muscat, 2025. "Trends in Malignant and Benign Brain Tumor Incidence and Mobile Phone Use in the U.S. (2000–2021): A SEER-Based Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 22(6), pages 1-10, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:6:p:933-:d:1678267
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/6/933/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/6/933/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:6:p:933-:d:1678267. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.