The Janus Serum Bank was established in 1973 by the Norwegian Cancer Society and is today situated at the Cancer Registry of Norway. Samples from the Janus Serum Bank have given material to many research-projects over the years and have contributed to valuable knowledge about cancer.
The Janus Serum Bank consists of about 452 000 blood drawings from about 317 000 Norwegian donors, stored at minus 25 degrees Celsius. Serum is blood plasma with clotting factors removed.
The serum samples come from persons who have participated in health examinations in most Norwegian counties and from Red Cross donors in Oslo and surrounding areas. The number of invasive cancer cases is about 48 000 (December 31st 2008).
The number of samples used in each project varies, from a few hundred cases to several thousand. All samples are coded before they are sent to the laboratory for analysis. This means that it is impossible to identify any single donor and that the laboratory does not know which samples are cases and which are controls.
The Janus Serum Bank is contacted by researchers from all over the world, and co-operates with groups from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, England, Germany, USA and Australia.
The Janus Serum Bank is population-based and is one of the oldest and largest banks of sera currently known.