The Janus material
The Janus Serum Bank contains samples from 318 628 donors. As of December 31st 2023, 123 719 cancer cases are registered among the Janus donors.
The Janus samples originate from three different sources. In the 1970s–90s, a number of population-based health surveys for monitoring risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, were performed in Norway. About 90% of the Janus donors were recruited from five of those health surveys. Approximately 10% of the Janus cohort members origin from Red Cross blood donors living in Oslo and the surroundings. A small proportion of the samples (n ∼ 3 500) in the cohort are from donors that entered the cohort with a pre-diagnostic sample at one time point, were later diagnosed with cancer and donated a new diagnostic sample. For this subgroup, both pre-and post-diagnostic samples from the same individuals are available. See the table below for details.
|
Characteristics |
Men |
Women |
Total |
|
Total donors included in the cohort |
166 137 |
152 491 |
318 628 |
|
Average age at enrolment (years) |
41 |
41 |
- |
|
Number of individuals by sample origin |
|
|
|
|
- Health Examination donors (Oslo 1, The Age 40 program Oslo, The Norwegian Counties Study, The Age 40 program all counties and TROFINN) |
146 222 |
134 898 |
281 120 |
|
- Red Cross Blood donors |
15 079 |
13 811 |
28 890 |
|
Number of donors by number of sample collection time points |
|
|
|
|
Health examination donors |
|
|
|
|
1 |
118 707 |
108 067 |
226 774 |
|
2 |
175 24 |
16 082 |
336 06 |
|
3 |
9 457 |
10 117 |
19 574 |
|
4 |
534 |
632 |
1 166 |
|
Red Cross Blood donors |
|
|
|
|
1 |
5 213 |
5 971 |
11 184 |
|
2 |
3 066 |
2 940 |
6 006 |
|
3 |
1 929 |
1 620 |
3 549 |
|
4 |
4 871 |
3 280 |
8 151 |
All of Norway's 19 counties (before the devision in 2018) participated in the population-based health surveys. The illustration below shows the distribution of samples by each county.
Geographical distribution of sample collection in the Janus Serum Bank 
The average age at enrollment for all Janus donors is 41 years. The largest proportion of samples are collected from persons that participated in health examinations in their 40s. In the Red Cross blood donor group the average age is 34. See table below for details on age at first sample donation.
|
Age at |
All |
% |
Health examination |
% |
Red Cross |
% |
|
| Men | 0-29 |
12 916 |
7.8 |
5 642 |
3.7 |
7 207 |
41.3 |
| 30-39 |
26 986 |
16.3 |
21 808 |
14.5 |
5 438 |
31.2 |
|
| 40-49 |
117 085 |
70.8 |
116 317 |
77.1 |
3 075 |
17.6 |
|
| 50-59 |
3 308 |
2.0 |
2 107 |
1.4 |
1 524 |
8.7 |
|
| 60+ |
5 095 |
3.6 |
4 905 |
3.3 |
194 |
1.1 |
|
|
Total men
|
165 390 |
150 779 |
17 438 |
||||
| Women | 0-29 |
11 774 |
7.8 |
5 033 |
3.6 |
6 682 |
45.8 |
| 30-39 |
25 475 |
16.8 |
21 867 |
15.8 |
3 786 |
26.0 |
|
| 40-49 |
106 276 |
70.1 |
104 775 |
75.8 |
2 579 |
17.7 |
|
| 50-59 |
2 589 |
1.7 |
1 377 |
1.0 |
1 341 |
9.2 |
|
| 60+ |
5 447 |
3.6 |
5 258 |
3.8 |
193 |
1.3 |
|
| Total Women |
151 561 |
138 310 |
14 581 |
Cancer statistics
Every year the Janus Serum Bank is merged with updated numbers from the Cancer Registry of Norway. Below you can find information about number of cancer cases in Janus donors by cancer type and illustrations of the most common and rare cancer types by sex.
Age-period-cohort model of the Janus cohort members
Here can you download the age-period-cohort model of the Janus cohort members. The table is modified from Langseth et al, International Journal of Epidemiology, 2017, Vol. 46, No. 2.
