6533b7d1fe1ef96bd125d909

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Comparison of Studies on Mobile Phone Use and Risk of Tumors

subject

description

published results of ameta-analysis of studies on mobile phone use and risk of tumors. Intheir analysis, the authors included 23 case-control studies, covering abroad spectrum of tumor entities including uveal melanoma, testicu-lar cancer, parotid gland tumors, and brain tumors.However, the authors give no rationale for pooling these hetero-geneous, biologically rather diverse cancer sites, for which the local-ized exposure from the use of mobile phones is completely different.The key difference between this particular meta-analysis com-pared with earlier ones is the use of a quality score. The use of qualityscoreshasbeenreportedtobea“formofsubjectivitymasqueradingasobjectivity”andithasbeensaidto“subjectivelymergeobjectiveinfor-mationwitharbitraryjudgmentsinamannerthatcanobscureimpor-tant sources of heterogeneity among study results.”