The Norwegian Women and Cancer study, NOWAC

Background
The collection of data started in the Norwegian Women and Cancer (NOWAC) cohort study in 1991. After 15 years the cohort consist of questionnaire information from 170 000 women with repeated collection of information after 4-6 years (2 or 3 times) and a biobank with more than 60 000 blood samples.

Ongoing collection of questionnaires and biological samples:
Collection of biopsies from breast tissue
- malignant tumours
- normal tissue


The NOWAC Epidemiology study group
At present the researcher group in the NOWAC study consists of the PI (professor in epidemiology), one professor in preventive medicine, one associated professor in biochemistry and one associated professor in cancer epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet. In addition, the group in Norway has several Postdocs and PhD students, and a technical staff.