Medical/biological Study (observational study)
Household electromagnetic fields -
breast cancer in older women
by Beniashvili D, Avinoach I, Baazov D, Zusman I
published in: In Vivo 2005; 19 (3): 563 - 566 ( 
PubMed Entry )
Aim of study (according to author)
To study the relationship between the rate of household low frequency
electromagnetic fields and incidences of mammary tumors in 1290 clinical case records of female patients aged 60
and more over a period of 26 years.
Background/further details:
The study was divided into two parts, each corresponding to a period of
13 years:
Group I - included patients with mammary tumors under
observation from 1978 to 1990, who rarely used electromagnetic field-generating appliances.
Group II - consisted of patients being under observation in the
period between 1991 and 2003, characterized by much more extensive use of personal
computers (more than 3 hours a day), mobile telephones, television sets, air conditioners and other household
electrical appliances generating electromagnetic fields.
Endpoint: Cancer: mammary tumors.
Exposure: Mobile phone, mobile
communication system, television sets, air conditioners and other household electrical appliances generating
electromagnetic fields.
Exposed system: Human - whole body
exposure.
Methods:
Measurement parameters:
-
Cancer: incidence and character of mammary tumors; presence of
metastases in regional lymph nodes and distinct organs
-
Morphological/histopathological changes: morphological
analysis/histological structure of mammary neoplasms (hematoxylin-eosin stain).
Investigated material: Tissue slices
(in vitro). Investigation on living organism - organ system(s): breast.
Time of investigation: During and after
exposure.
Main outcome of study: (according to author)
Mammary tumors were observed in 2824 women (1.4%) of the 200,527 biopsy
and surgery samples analyzed.
Of these, 1290 cases (45.6%) were found in elderly women. Most of
the tumors - 1254, (97.2%) - were epithelial neoplasms.
Mammary tumors were found in 585 elderly women in Group I and 705 women
in Group II.
The case records of these patients showed that in Group I =
114 elderly women (19.5%), and in Group II = 360 (51.1%),
were regularly exposed to electromagnetic fields (mostly from personal
computers) for at least 3 hours a day.
In Group II there was a statistically
significant influence of electromagnetic fields on the formation of all
observed epithelial mammary tumors. This influence is most evident for invasive ductal
carcinomas, which was the most common form of cancer in elderly women.
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