Cell phone use not tied to eye cancer

Mobile phone use is not associated with the risk of melanoma of the eye, researchers report in the January 13 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Although there is no direct link between exposure to radio waves and DNA damage, which can lead to cancer, studies have examined the possibility of an association between mobile phone use and melanoma of the eye, also called uveal melanoma.

In the current study, Andreas Stang, M.D., of the Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg in Germany, and colleagues examined the association between phone use and risk of uveal melanoma in 459 patients and 1,194 control subjects. Control subjects were drawn from the general population, from ophthalmology clinics, and from siblings of the patients. The investigators grouped study participants according to amount of time spent on the phone, as never users, sporadic users and regular users.

There was no statistically significant association between mobile phone use of up to about 10 years and uveal melanoma risk.

"In conclusion, we observed no overall increased risk of uveal melanoma among regular mobile phone users or users of radio sets in Germany, where digital mobile phone technology was introduced in the early 1990s," the authors write.

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January 13, 2009