Cell Phones, Brain Tumors & Worrying

I am convinced that making a ton of phone calls with your cell phone glued to your ear is a bad idea; a horrible idea; a potentially brain tumor-causing idea.

This video by Dr. Thornton just confirms my fears by explaining that electromagnetic radiation from cell phones has been implicated in causing some kinds of brain tumors: https://www.sharecare.com/video/sharecare-experts/lisa-thornton/why-is-there-concern-that-cell-phones-may-cause-cancer

Now that I’m especially paranoid, what do I do? Throw my cell phone in the trash can? Luckily, Dr. Miller had this some practical advice for me on the same sharecare.com website: https://www.sharecare.com/video/sharecare-experts/robin-miller/how-to-reduce-your-cell-phone-radiation-risk

Havening watched that, I zipped over to the National Cancer Institute site on the NIH website for their POV. Their information was cautiously uncommitted; which is another way of saying that they believe there should be a link/association/relation but nobody’s found it yet. You can read their comments here: http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/cell-phones-fact-sheet#q1

 

Having read and written all that, I’m still worried about my kids who seem to have their cell phones grafted onto their ears.

John

“Brain Tumor’s Genetic Makeup Critical in Treatment”

If you haven’t read it, here’s a link to article by Benedict Carey in the NY Times reporting on progress in prescribing more individualized brain cancer treatment based on genetic characteristics of the victims.

Carey writes that “Doctors can more effectively treat many brain tumors by first ascertaining their genetic characteristics, rather than studying tissue samples under a microscope, the standard practice, two teams of researchers reported on Wednesday.”

He goes on to note that: “Prognosis is going to be more accurately delineated by these kinds of genetic subtypes, outstripping the value of looking through a microscope,” said Dr. David J. Langer, the chief of neurosurgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, who was not involved in the research.

His article refers to some new studies — one coordinated by the National Institutes of Health, the other led by the Mayo Clinic and the University of California, San Francisco — in which “…research teams performed multiple genetic analyses on 1,380 tumors. Both teams found that the tumors could be grouped into a few categories, which could be determined by looking at a handful of genetic glitches.”

Here’s the part that make me think we’re making progress: “Tumors with one genetic profile, for instance, were relatively slow growers and responsive to drug treatment, making them good candidates for chemotherapy alone, rather than combined with radiation. Tumors in another category grew relatively slowly but were not as responsive to drugs, suggesting that combined therapy was best.”

Aha! This new information is insightful and pragmatic. Doctors can start helping victims right away.

Here’s a link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/11/health/brain-tumors-genetic-makeup-critical-in-treatment-research-finds.html?_r=0