Study on health impact of mobile phone radiation planned

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Note:  There will be no news distributions from November 26 - 

December 8



Index:



Study on health impact of mobile phone radiation planned

Vastly Shorter Radiation Time for Breast Cancer Treatment

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Study on health impact of mobile phone radiation planned



TOKYO, Nov. 21 (Kyodo) - NTT DoCoMo Inc., KDDI Corp., J-Phone Co. and 

Tu-Ka Cellular Tokyo Inc. said Thursday they will launch a joint 

study on how radiation from mobile phones and related relay stations 

affect human health.



The mobile phone service providers said they will have several 

meetings a year to analyze test data and release their conclusions.



''There is no scientific evidence that emissions have negative 

effects on human health,'' said an official at one of the four 

companies, ''but we've decided to launch the joint study so as to 

confirm the safety of mobile phones.''



A private laboratory has been conducting experiments in which tissue 

samples are exposed to mobile phone emissions on behalf of NTT DoCoMo 

since last year and the experiments are likely to last about four 

years.



The joint study will be made amid widespread concerns that radiation 

emitted by mobile phones can cause brain tumors or other cancers, but 

various international studies have so far produced conflicting 

evidence.



A recent study by Australian researchers over three years found that 

emissions from mobile phones did not cause tumors in mice, and so 

probably did not do so in humans either.



That followed another Australian study on mice five years ago that 

said cellular phones could foster tumor growth.

-------------------



Stanford Trial Studies Vastly Shorter Radiation Time for Breast 

Cancer Treatment



STANFORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 20, 2002--A new radiation 

approach being tested at Stanford University Medical Center could 

shorten the overall treatment time for women with breast cancer. 

Participants will receive a single dose of radiation at the time of 

surgery rather than the usual six-week course of radiation therapy. 

The clinical trial is now recruiting patients.



"The trial should tell us whether this accelerated form of 

radiotherapy is safe, feasible and effective in controlling cancer 

recurrence in the breast for certain women who have a lumpectomy," 

said Frederick Dirbas, MD, assistant professor of surgical oncology 

at the Stanford School of Medicine and leader of the trial.



Women with a breast tumor often have a lumpectomy, surgery in which 

the doctor removes only the cancerous region, leaving the rest of the 

breast intact. The patient then receives a dose of radiation to the 

entire breast each weekday for about the next six weeks to minimize 

the risk of cancer returning.



"The fact that current radiation treatments occur every day for 

several weeks makes it an issue for women," Dirbas said, adding that 

the schedule can be inconvenient for women who work, care for young 

children or live far from the treatment site. He said the idea 

behind this prolonged schedule was that women would experience fewer 

side effects if the total radiation dose was broken into 

smaller increments.



In recent years, however, doctors in the United States and Europe 

have begun looking at approaches to shorten the overall treatment 

time while still fending off cancer. In one Italian trial with more 

than 100 participants, patients received a single large dose of 

radiation 

at the same time as the surgery. Two years after the initial surgery, 

the treatment appears to be safe and effective.



Based on this success, Dirbas and Donald Goffinet, MD, professor of 

radiation oncology, are replicating the Italian trial -- the first 

U.S. trial of this technique. They hope to recruit 50 women who are 

older than 40, have a single breast tumor that is smaller than 2.5 

centimeters and have a low likelihood of tumors elsewhere in the 

breast.



For information about participating in the trial, please call Janelle 

Maxwell at (650) 498-7740.



Stanford University Medical Center integrates research, medical 

education and patient care at its three institutions -- Stanford 

University School of Medicine, Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile 

Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. For more information, please 

visit the Web site of the medical center's Office of Communication & 

Public Affairs at http://mednews.stanford.edu.



-------------------------------------------------

Sandy Perle

Director, Technical

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service

ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100  Extension 2306

Fax:(714) 668-3149



E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net

E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com



Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/



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