It’s a ruling that could potentially open the door to further legal claims.

Italy’s supreme court has upheld a ruling that said there was a link between a business executive’s brain tumour and his heavy mobile phone use.

The court’s decision flies in the face of much scientific opinion which says there is not enough evidence to declare a link between mobile phone use and diseases such as cancer.

Some experts say the Italian ruling should not be used to draw wider conclusions about the subject.

Malcolm Sperrin is Director of Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering at Britain’s Royal Berkshire Hospital.

He says great caution is needed before we jump to conclusions about mobile phones and brain tumours.

The evidence on which today’s ruling is based comes in studies conducted between 2005-2009 by a group led by Lennart Hardell.

He’s a cancer specialist at the University Hospital in Orebro in Sweden.

The court said the research was independent and “unlike some others, was not co-financed by the same companies that produce mobile telephones.”