Diesmal in: http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/64/7/1189

Ist zwar Englisch, genau hinschauen lohnt sich aber dennoch. Denn erstmals wird hier klar gesagt (siehe unten), dass die Mobilfunker in Gestalt des MMF (Handyhersteller) und der GSM Association (Betreiber) die Interphone-Studie finanziell unterstützen. Entzückend!

Da hilft auch der Hinweis auf wissenschaftliche Unabhängigkeit nicht mehr viel - die Glaubwürdigkeit von Interphone hat auf jeden Fall schon mal einen ziemlichen Knacks weg. Mist, genau das hätte nicht passieren dürfen! Denn es kommt ja noch ein ganzer Schwung von Studien, die alle im Rahmen von Interphone erscheinen - und die jetzt alle in dem schrägen Licht dastehen.

Nachfolgend die Originalpassage aus Neurology:

Supported by the European Commission Fifth Framework Program—Quality of life and management of living resources (Contract QLK4-CT1999-01563), a grant from Union Internationale Contre le Cancer (UICC) (RCA/01/08), a grant from the International Epidemiology Institute, Rockville, MD, and the Danish Cancer Society. The UICC received funds for this purpose from the Mobile Manufacturers' Forum and the GSM Association. Provision of funds to the Interphone study investigators via the UICC was governed by agreements that guaranteed Interphone's complete scientific independence.

Auf der Website der IARC (Auftraggeber/Organisator der Interphone-Studie) findet sich über die Interphone-Informationspolitik noch folgendes:

- The partial funds provided by the MMF/GSMA to the UICC (Anm.: franz. Abkürzung für IARC) complement funds received from non-commercial sources including the European Union and national and local research funding organisations.

- The UICC retains full responsibility for the scientific oversight and the use of these funds, as well as the financial management of these funds.

- The INTERPHONE International Study Group as a whole is responsible for the progress of the study, the choice of analyses to be conducted, and the interpretation and publications of results. All the decisions about the study are made exclusively by the INTERPHONE International Study Group.

- The funders of the INTERPHONE Study do not have access to any results of the INTERPHONE Study before their publication. They may, however, be informed, together with representatives from other concerned organisations such as consumers' groups, a maximum of seven days before the publication of the results, under strict terms of confidentiality.

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Der Abstract bei Neurology ist übrigens ziemlich missverständlich formuliert, was das "low risk" bei schwerem Gliom angeht. Die Nebel lichten sich, wenn man sich den Text der IARC anschaut:

The first results of analyses of risk of brain tumour in relation to use of mobile telephones in the Danish part of INTERPHONE were published on 12 April 2005 in Neurology http://www.neurology.org/: Collatz Christensen H., Schüz J, Kosteljanetz M, Skovgaard Poulsen H, Boice JD, McLaughlin JK and Johansen C. Cellular telephones and risk for brain tumors: a population-based, incident case-control study. Neurology 64: 1189-1195.
The study included 252 incident glioma cases, 175 incident meningioma cases and 822 randomly selected population based controls stratified on age and gender. The cases were aged 20 to 69 and diagnosed in 2000-2002 in the whole of Denmark. Participation rates were 71% for glioma, 74% for meningioma and 64% for controls. Regular mobile phone use did not increase the risk of low-grade glioma or of meningioma (low-grade glioma OR=1.08, 95% CI 0.58-2.00; meningioma: OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.54-0.1.28). No association was found with time since first exposure (only 6 meningioma and 6 low-grade glioma cases had started using mobile phones 10 years or more before diagnosis, however) or with numbers of call or hours of calls.

A statistically significant reduction in risk was seen for high-grade glioma (OR 0.58, 95%CI 0.37-0.90). The finding is puzzling as there is, a priori, no biological mechanism for such a reduction. It is noted that 18% of the glioma cases could not be interviewed as they had either died or were too ill. Although no information is provided about the grade of the tumours among non-respondents, it is likely that a large proportion of these were high-grade gliomas. In addition, patients with high-grade glioma had significantly lower scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination than patients with lower-grade glioma or meningioma. The reduced risk for high-grade glioma may therefore reflect selection and/or recall bias.

To date, few studies have included sufficient numbers of cases among long-term users to allow a definitive conclusion about a possible association between mobile telephone use and the risk of brain cancer. These results therefore need to be confirmed in other studies before firm conclusions can be drawn.

Results of other national components of the INTERPHONE Study should be published later in 2005 and 2006 (The results of the Swedish brain tumour study were published earlier this year http://aje.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/full/161/6/526/). Results from the International analyses, which will cover about 2800 glioma cases and 2400 meningioma cases and sizable numbers of long-term users, are expected later in 2005.

More information about the Danish study and its results can be found on the site of the Danish Cancer Centre www.cancer.dk.

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Jedes komplexe Problem hat eine Lösung, die einfach, naheliegend, plausibel – und falsch ist.
– Frei nach Henry Louis Mencken (1880–1956) –