Brain tumour increase in Sweden

In recent years, the incidence of brain tumours in Sweden has increased dramatically, yet this trend is not reflected in the Swedish Cancer Registry, according to the Swedish Radiation Protection Foundation.

The Foundation compiled statistics drawn from the Swedish Health Board and cancer registry which showed that the number of people who died from brain tumours ’of unknown origin’ had increased by 157% between 2008 and 2013. Board of Health data showed that deaths from such tumours had increased from 96 in 2004 to 229 in 2013—yet no such increase is recorded in the data of the Swedish Cancer Registry.

Foundation chairman, Mona Nilsson, says that the underreporting of brain tumour incidence in the Cancer Registry is misleading. ‘The Swedish cancer statistics of brain tumors is increasingly being used as an argument against increased risk of brain tumors from mobile phone use not only in Sweden, but also on an international level,’ she said.

The Foundation has called on the Swedish Government and businesses to alert the community to the potential risks of brain tumours from mobile phone use.

(Press release, Swedish Radiation Protection Foundation: http:// www.stralskyddsstiftelsen.se/2014/10/increase-brain-tumors/)