Cell phones and brain cancer One study of cell phones and the risk of brain cancer looked at a group of 469 people who have brain cancer. The investigators matched each cancer patient with a person of the same age, gender, and race who did not have brain cancer, then asked about the use of cell phones. Result: “Our data suggest that the use of handheld cellular phones is not associated with risk of brain cancer.”31 Is this an observational study or an experiment? Justify your answer.