Aggressive Brain Tumors on the Rise in England

Microwave News http://microwavenews.com/news-center/gbms-rising-uk

Rate of GBM More Than Doubled Between 1995 and 2015

The incidence of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the deadliest type of brain tumor, more than doubled in England between 1995 and 2015, according to a new analysis of national statistics. During that time, the number of cases of GBM rose from 983 to 2,531.

“We found a sustained and highly significant increase in GBM throughout the 21 years and across all ages,” said Alasdair Philips, the lead author of the study, which has just been released online by the peer-reviewed, open access, Journal of Environmental and Public Health.

“The incidence rate of GBM, the most aggressive and quickly fatal brain tumor, is rising dramatically in England while the rates for lower grade tumors have decreased, masking this dramatic trend in the overall data,” Philips told Microwave News from his home in Beeswing in southern Scotland, not far from the English border.

What’s Causing the Rise of GBM?

Philips and coworkers do not know what is causing the increase in GBM, but they reject improved diagnosis because these tumors are generally fatal and are very rarely missed. “We suggest that widespread environmental or lifestyle factors may be responsible,” they write.

One possible factor is the widespread use of cell phones.“When we looked at the incidence of GBM tumors we found an even more dramatic rise in frontal and temporal regions of the brain. This raises the suspicion that mobile phone use may be promoting gliomas.”

“Indeed, our findings support previous work by Lennart Hardell’s group in Sweden.”

“The new paper adds further evidence for the increased risk of glioma associated with mobile phone use,” Hardell told us by e-mail from Örebro, Sweden. “It is in agreement with previous epidemiological findings of a higher glioma risk in humans using mobile phones and certainly also with the recent RF–animal studies from America and Italy.”

Philips also raises the possibility that an increased exposure to X-rays from CT scans might be contributing to the higher rates of GBM.

See the link for more, including very interesting tables.  http://microwavenews.com/news-center/gbms-rising-uk

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