The Norwegian Women and Cancer Study (NOWAC), a prospective study on diet, lifestyle, and cancer, coordinated by the Department of Community Medicine at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, became officially associated with EPIC in 2000.
The study extended the scope of EPIC by providing valuable information on the nutritional habits and disease risk of a northern European population. The cohort consists of different sub-studies, which have common core questions. Questionnaires were completed by 103 000 women in 1991—1997, and the study was expanded to include 172 000 women by the end of 2006. In general, repeated information is collected every 4—6 years.
The part of the cohort included in EPIC consists of 37 200 women, aged 35—49 years at recruitment into the Women, Lifestyle and Health sub-study in 1991/1992. They completed a second questionnaire in 1998 (the Norwegian EPIC questionnaire), and were re-contacted in 2004—2005. Biological samples have also been collected, with a focus on preserving gene expression. More information is available at:
http://site.uit.no/nowac/.

Information on all cancer cases and deaths is available from national registries. By the end of 2011, 2964 incident invasive cancers had been diagnosed.

Professor Guri Skeie
Department of Community Medicine
University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway
Tromsø, Norway

Co-Investigator
Associate Professor Tonje Braaten
Department of Community Medicine
University of Tromsø –
The Arctic University of Norway
Tromsø, Norway

Associate Professor Tonje Braaten
Department of Community Medicine
University of Tromsø –
The Arctic University of Norway
Tromsø, Norway

Professor Inger Torhild Gram
Department of Community Medicine
University of Tromsø –
The Arctic University of Norway
Tromsø, Norway