# RF-002 — Heart tumours in a separate lifetime rat programme

Why this matters
A separate lifetime study found more of the same rare heart tumour in male rats at its highest exposure. That convergence deserves attention when considering cancer protection, even though the experiments differed and shared pathology expertise. The finding cannot establish a safe or unsafe human exposure level.

Id: RF-002

Author: Falcioni et al.

Full Authors: L. Falcioni; L. Bua; E. Tibaldi; M. Lauriola; L. De Angelis; F. Gnudi; D. Mandrioli; M. Manservigi; F. Manservisi; I. Manzoli; I. Menghetti; R. Montella; S. Panzacchi; D. Sgargi; V. Strollo; A. Vornoli; F. Belpoggi

Year: 2018

Title: Report of final results regarding brain and heart tumors in Sprague-Dawley rats exposed from prenatal life until natural death to mobile phone radiofrequency field representative of a 1.8 GHz GSM base station environmental emission

Journal: environmental research

Citation: Falcioni L, Bua L, Tibaldi E, Lauriola M, De Angelis L, Gnudi F, Mandrioli D, Manservigi M, Manservisi F, Manzoli I, Menghetti I, Montella R, Panzacchi S, Sgargi D, Strollo V, Vornoli A, Belpoggi F. Report of final results regarding brain and heart tumors in Sprague-Dawley rats exposed from prenatal life until natural death to mobile phone radiofrequency field representative of a 1.8 GHz GSM base station environmental emission. Environmental Research. 2018; 165: 496-503. doi:10.1016/j.envres.2018.01.037.

Doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2018.01.037

Pmid: 29530389

Topic: Tumours

Verification Group: Original text reviewed

Record Role: Original text reviewed

Featured: True

Exposure: 1835 MHz GSM/GMSK, full time-slot assignment; far-field 0/5/25/50 V/m, 19 h/day, gestational day 12 to natural death. Estimated whole-body SAR 0/0.001/0.03/0.1 W/kg; coupling-factor estimate, not individual/organ dosimetry.

Design: 2448 Sprague-Dawley rats; male n=412/401/209/207, female n=405/410/202/202 in ascending field groups. Sham; blinded pathology, blinded NTP second-opinion review. Tumour incidence Fisher/chi-square; Cochran-Armitage trend; survival separately Kaplan-Meier/log-rank/Cox.

Finding: Male cardiac schwannomas: 0/412, 3/401, 1/209, 3/207; highest group p≤.05, Fisher. Female cardiac schwannomas: 4/405, 9/410, 1/202, 2/202. Female malignant glial tumours: 2/405, 3/410, 2/202, 3/202; nonsignificant. Hyperplasia increases were nonsignificant. Authors reported no survival difference.

Boundary: Sparse events; highest-dose male comparison drives significance. Tumour tests not survival-adjusted; one room/intensity; litter assignment. Rat SAR cannot certify human-limit compliance.

Related: Separate exposure/animal programme from NTP RF-001, with NTP pathology collaboration; Brooks 2024 reuses these tissues. Soffritti 2019 mini-review repeats results, not another bioassay.

Protection Question: What does convergence on a rare heart tumour across different lifetime exposure arrangements mean for chronic protection? Sparse events, shared pathology expertise and estimated rat doses limit the inference; numerical SAR alone cannot answer it.

Access: Original published 8-page PDF: methods, results, Tables 1-3, Fig 3 and funding reviewed; metadata independently checked with Scite/PubMed.

Locator: pp 497-499 §§2.1, 2.3-2.6; p 500 Fig 3; p 501 Table 2; p 502 Table 3/funding.

Notice: Scite metadata and PubMed relations checked 2026-10-20: no correction/retraction/concern located. PubMed links 2020 statistical-reappraisal comment (10.1016/j.envres.2020.110233) and 2021 response (10.1016/j.envres.2021.111067); these are comments, not notices.

Funding: RI; ARPA Emilia-Romagna; Children With Cancer UK; Cassa di Risparmio Bologna; INAIL; P.E.I.; Fondazione del Monte Bologna/Ravenna; Environmental Health Trust. Authors report no conflict; funders no direct study/publication role.

Conflicts: Authors declare no conflicts or competing interests, as documented in the retrieved source disclosure.

Source Url: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2018.01.037

Retrieval Links: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2018.01.037 | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29530389/ | https://www.legambiente.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/FALCIONI-L-et-al_2018_EnvironRes.pdf

Verification Date: 2026-10-20