Evidence potentially implicating aspartame includes an early animal study revealing an exceedingly high incidence of brain tumors in aspartame-fed rats compared to no brain tumors in concurrent controls, the recent finding that the aspartame ...

Other large cohort studies have ... Diet and Health Study, in which higher consumption of aspartame-containing beverages was not associated with the development of lymphoma, leukemia, or brain cancer during more than 5 years of follow-up (12)....

July 16, 1997 - Brain cancer incidence rates in the United States have been increasing in both adults ( 1 ) and children ( 2 ). The possibility that aspartame, a widely ingested artificial sweetener, may be a cause of brain cancer in humans was suggested in ...

September 1, 2006 - Abstract. Background: In a few animal experiments, aspartame has been linked to hematopoietic and brain cancers. Most animal studies have found no increase in the risk of these or other cancers.

December 4, 2025 - John Olney, lead author of the study, told 60 minutes in 1996: “there has been a striking increase in the incidence of malignant brain tumors (in the three to five years following the approval of aspartame) …

While some research, particularly in animal models, has suggested a possible association between aspartame consumption and an increased risk of cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and brain tumors, including a 92.3% confirmation rate of malignancy in re-evaluated rodent studies using ...

April 12, 2021 - A particularly important use is ... Institute (RI) reported in 2006 and 2007 that aspartame causes dose-related increases in malignant tumors in multiple organs in rats and mice....

Conclusions: Our findings do not support the hypothesis that aspartame increases hematopoietic or brain cancer risk.

January 11, 2026 - In 1981, FDA Commissioner Arthur Hull Hayes sought advice on the issue from a panel of FDA scientists and a lawyer. The panel identified errors underlying the PBOI conclusion that aspartame might cause brain tumors, and presented arguments both for and against approval.

The results of this mega-experiment indicate that aspartame, in the tested experimental conditions, is a multi-potential carcinogenic agent (Table 2). ... There are some remarkable contradictory results found in the epidemiological studies. Olney et al. (1996) reported the relationship between increasing frequency of brain tumors in humans since 1980 and the use of aspartame...

July 8, 2025 - However, aspartame can directly impact the gut microbiome and thus mediate glioblastoma risk via the gut-brain axis. This axis affects immunity and metabolic pathways in the tumor's immediate microenvironment.

July 14, 2023 - In 1974, the FDA approved the use of aspartame in some foods and beverages, but the decision was suspended for a few years because of some contradictory studies, objections to its approval and questions about the initial studies themselves. Some scientists were concerned when an early animal study showed that aspartame may have caused brain tumors in rats.

February 2, 2019 - Overall, the results of the studies do not support that exposures to low and no-calorie sweeteners and beverages, and by extension aspartame, are associated with an increased risk of cancer in humans.

July 20, 2023 - U.S. Food and Drug Administration ... supporting its safety.” ... EFSA says that “studies do not suggest an increased risk associated with aspartame consumption for … a variety of cancers, including brain, lymphatic, ...

July 14, 2023 - After all, there are several as-yet unexplained emerging cancer trends, like rising rates of colon cancers in young adults, and increasing brain tumor rates in children and teens.

*Ishii H (1981). Incidence of brain tumors in rats fed aspartame.

January 29, 2022 - The NCI notes a 2006 study of the diets of 500,000 retirees found no connection between increased aspartame and lymphoma, leukemia or brain cancer.

The criteria invoked in judging ... rats have a high incidence of malignant brain tumors; and 3) an increased incidence of brain tumors in humans following the introduction of aspartame in the diet....