Leading Australian doctor says mobile phones are the cause of an increase in brain cancer.

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Leading Australian physician, Dr John Tickell, claims that mobile phone usage could be a reason for an increase in brain cancer.

“There is a million times more radiation today than there was 50 years ago,” Dr Tickell told the Herald Sun.

“The World Health Organisation has upgraded cell phone radiation to B2 category, which means possibly, carcinogenic.”

Related: Why health should be one of Abbott’s ‘pillars of the economy’.

Dr Tickell, who has fought his own personal battle with brain cancer, believes that more funding needs to be allocated to research into brain cancer, especially seeing as government figures show that 35 people are diagnosed with brain cancer each week.

Recently, many Australians were made aware of the devastating realities of brain cancer when gold Logie winner, Carrie Bickmore, spoke about the disease that claimed the life of her first husband.

The day following her moving speech, many media personalities publicly supported the cause by wearing "beanies for brain cancer".

According to the Cancer Council, the five year survival rate for brain cancer is 22 per cent. It's a statistic that's much lower than that of other higher profile cancers like breast cancer and leukemia.

Related: Why do some breast cancers come back?

Dr Tickell says that the survival rates for breast cancer sufferers is approximately 90 per cent with early diagnosis and adequate treatment, and leukemia is around 80 per cent survival rate over five years. (Post continues after gallery.)

It's proof that more awareness of a type of cancer can help to save lives and assist with early detection.

Telecommunications companies remain firm in their stance that mobile phone use is safe despite Dr Tickell claiming that the last in-depth testing into the effects of the technology were some 20 years ago in the United States.

Dr Tickell has also expressed concerns at high profile figures like Pete Evans and Sarah Wilson and claims that with little formal qualifications, they should refrain from handing out health advice.

"If I quite sugar (a program devised by Wilson) I would be dead and as for the pale diet (of which Evans is a firm advocate) the longest living people on earth eat grains three times a day" says Tickell.

Related: Pippa Middleton is apparently the new royal health expert. Kind of.

Will this news change the way you use your mobile phone?