Breast Cancer in Women Under 50 on the Rise — Could Cellphones Play a Role?

Recent studies show breast cancer is the most common cancer in women under 50, fueling longstanding concerns about a possible link between devices like cellphones and cancer.

Breast Cancer in Women Under 50 on the Rise — Could Cellphones Play a Role?

By Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D., childrenshealthdefense.org, 6 Sep 2023

Early-onset breast cancer is on the rise in younger women in the U.S., according to two new peer-reviewed studies, leading some experts to wonder if cellphone use could be at least partially to blame.

The authors of an Aug. 16 study in JAMA Network Open looked at the health data from 2010 to 2019 of more than half a million people in the U.S. under 50 who reported having some kind of early-onset cancer.

They concluded breast cancer in 2019 had the highest incidence rate, with 12,649 new cases reported that year.

Meanwhile, the authors of a study published Sept. 5 in BMJ Oncology looked at worldwide cancer trends from 1990-2019. Breast cancer was responsible for the largest number of cases and associated deaths among younger people, with rates of 13.7 cases and 3.5 deaths per 100,000 people, they said.

Devra Davis, Ph.D., MPH, a toxicologist and epidemiologist who for more than 40 years has studied trends in cancer and who published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, said she found the reports “very troubling.”

Davis is the president of Environmental Health Trust (EHT), a scientific research and education nonprofit, and founding director of the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology of the U.S. National Research Council at the National Academy of Sciences.

She told The Defender, “A trend in cancer cannot prove what is causing it. The trend is simply a fact. So the fact is that cancer among younger Americans, particularly women, is on the rise.”

Indeed, the American Cancer Society in 2022 estimated there were 47,550 cases of breast cancer in U.S. women younger than 50.

“But,” Davis added, “there’s clear compelling evidence that electromagnetic fields [EMFs] accelerate the growth of breast cancer cells.”

EMFs can accelerate growth of breast cancer cells

“We have known for nearly 30 years that EMFs can accelerate the growth of MCF-7 breast cancer cells,” Davis said. “There’s no debate about that.”

According to Davis, MCF-7 is an estrogen receptor-positive cancer cell that has been cultured for many years and is used as a standard assay in the laboratory.

Davis said prior research showed radiofrequency (RF) radiation emitted by cellphones moves easily through fat and fluid — “and the breast is nothing but fat and fluid,” she said.

Additionally, a 2020 peer-reviewed study found that excessive smartphone use “significantly increased” the risk of breast cancer, with those using cellphones for more than 4.5 minutes before bedtime having a 5.27-fold increased risk of breast cancer compared to those using a smartphone for less time.

The study authors said:

“To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to find that excessive smartphone use significantly increased the risk of breast cancer, particularly for participants with a smartphone addiction, who maintained a close distance between the breasts and smartphone, and who had the habit of smartphone use before bedtime.”

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