JanusRNA - identification of early cancer biomarkers
RNA is involved in numerous cellular processes related to cancer development. In this project, we investigate whether RNA can function in early detection and as a potential screening biomarker for cancer. The project has several subprojects that have produced large amounts of RNA data for various types of cancer. These data will soon be available for use in cancer research.
About the project
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Project period: 01.10.2013 - 31.12.2025 (Active)
- Coordinating Institution: Folkehelseinstituttet
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Project Manager:
- Hilde Langseth, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
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Project Participants:
- Trine Rounge, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
- Renée Turzansky Fortner, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
- Marcin Wojewodzic, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
- Steffan Daniel Bos-Haugen, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
- Katarina B. Skogstrøm, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
- Marianne Lauritzen, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
- Luca Pestarino, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
- Sina Rostami, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
- Robert Lyle, Oslo University Hospital
Summary
Approximately 38,000 Norwegians develop cancer each year, and cancer is the second most common cause of death in the country. Colorectal cancer is among the most common cancers among men and women. The incidence of lung cancer has increased steadily over the past 30 years, and now especially among women. Survival is very poor. These two cancers constitute a significant health problem, and early diagnosis and treatment will be of great importance in improving survival. The purpose of the study is to investigate miRNA as an early marker for colorectal cancer and lung cancer. miRNAs are small non-coding RNAs with a size of 19-24 nucleotides. Using prediagnostic serum samples from the Janus Serumbank, we will study how long before diagnosis changes in miRNA signatures can be observed, and which miRNAs are deregulated in these two patient groups compared to healthy control individuals. Sequencing data is planned and made available to national and international research communities after new approvals in REK.
Cancer
About 38,000 Norwegians are diagnosed with cancer annually, and it is the leading cause of death in Norway.
Colon cancer is one of the most common cancer types in Norway and the number of yearly diagnosis has increased rapidly since the 1960s for both men and women. Symptoms of colon cancer often occurs at a late stage, when prognosis is uncertain or poor.
Similarly, lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death for both men and women. Even though the number of smokers are declining, the yearly occurrences are still increasing. Due to lack of efficient strategies for screening or early diagnosis, the prognosis is generally poor.
Prostate and breast cancers are the most frequently occurring cancer types among men and women, respectively and accounts for 30% of all cancer cases. Cancer survival depends on how early the disease is diagnosed and treatment can commence.
RNA
Serum contain many types of RNA molecules such as protein-coding messenger RNAs (mRNAs), miRNAs, piRNAs, transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and other non-coding RNA molecules. Regulatory RNAs have been implicated in cancer and many other diseases and are thus promising biomarkers of cancer.
We have initiated and lead several large projects that study RNA as cancer biomarkers and the role RNA plays in cancer development. We have a close collaboration with the Norwegian Sequencing Center (NSC) at Oslo University Hospital (OUS), bioinformatics core facilities at the University of Oslo and several clinical environments. In addition, several international collaborators are involved in this project.
Our study uses pre-diagnostic samples from the large population-based Janus Serum Bank, the Cancer Registry detailed information on cancer diagnosis, and epidemiological data from national health surveys. This provides us with a unique dataset to investigate early biomarkers of cancer.
This project is financed by the Research Council of Norway, Norwegian Cancer Society and EU Horizon 2020.
Aim of research
The overall research aim is to discover RNAs as early detection biomarkers of cancer. The long-term goal is to exploit such biomarkers in cancer screening.
How to get access to data
All research projects that includes information and/or biological material from Janus Serum Bank must comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This means that the processing must have approval from the Regional Committee for Medical Research in Norway (REC). Furthermore the processing needs legal basis according to GDPR Article 6 and 9. The applicant must have considered the need for a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) according to GDPR article 35. The applicant must prove that these requirements have been met before the data can be made available. Disclosure of information and/or biological material to countries outside the EU requires that the conditions in GDPR are met. For more information email
To apply for access to published data from the JanusRNA study the applicant must fill out this form:
Funding
- The Research Council, The Cancer Society, The European Union
Collaborating partners
- Norwegian Sequencing Centre and University of Oslo
Core Facility Leader, Robert Lyle, PhD - Saarland University
Chair of Clinical Bioinformatics, Andreas Keller, PhD
Institute of Human Genetics, Eckart Meese, PhD - Institute for Cancer research at Oslo University Hospital
Institute for Tumor Biology and Research Group for Biomedical Informatics, Prof. Eivind Hovig, PhD
Institute of Oncology Assoc. Prof Åslaug Helland, MD, PhD - OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University
Faculty of Health Sciences, Trine B. Haugen, PhD - University in Heidelberg
Medical Biometry, Prof. Justo Lorenzo Bermejo, PhD - German Cancer Research Centre
The Institution for Cancer Epidemiology, Prof. Rudolf Kaaks, PhD
The Institution for Cancer Epidemiology, Renée Fortner, PhD - Harvard Medical School
Brigham And Women’s Hospital, Prof. Kevin Elias, MD - Imperial College London, School of Public Health
Chair of Environmental Epidemiology, Prof. Paolo Vineis, MD, MPH, FFPH
Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Verena Züber, PhD
Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Prof. Marc Chadeau-Hyam, PhD - Universitet i Bergen
Institute for Global Health and Community Medicine, Prof. Tone Bjørge, MD, PhD, Prof. Rolv Terje Lie, PhD
Contact information
- E-mail: mirJanus@fhi.no
Publications
Scherer, D., Barahona Ponce, C., Mengoa, C., Montenegro, P., Losada, H., Garcia, A. L., Rojas, A., Morales, E., Kortmann, A. V., Spencer, L., Ortega, A., Vargas Valdebenito, K., Roa, J. C., Inklemona, C., Colombo Flores, A., Kirsten, R., Zollner, L., Marcelain, K., Rounge, T. B.,…Lorenzo Bermejo, J. 2025. "Data Resource Profile: EULAT Eradicate GBC: the European-Latin American Research Consortium towards Eradication of Preventable Gallbladder Cancer". https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaf127
Burton J, Rounge TB, Haugen TB, Wojewodzic MW, 2025. "Networks of pre-diagnostic circulating RNA in testicular germ cell tumour"
Alice Blandino, Dominique Scherer, Felix Boekstegers, Trine B. Rounge, Hilde Langseth, Stephanie Roessler, Kristian Hveem, Hermann Brenner, Sonali Pechlivanis, Melanie Waldenberger, Justo Lorenzo Bermejo, 2024. "Small-RNA sequencing reveals potential serum biomarkers for gallbladder cancer: Results from a three-stage collaborative study of large European prospective cohorts"
Stawiski K, Fortner RT, Pestarino L, Umu SU, Kaaks R, Rounge TB, Elias KM, Fendler W, Langseth H, 2024. "Validation of miRNA signatures for ovarian cancer earlier detection in the pre-diagnosis setting using machine learning approaches".
Sina Rostami, Trine B. Rounge, Luca Pestarino, Robert Lyle, Renée Turzanski Fortner, Øystein Ariansen Haaland, Rolv T. Lie, Fredrik Wiklund, Tone Bjørge, Hilde Langseth, 2024. "Differential levels of circulating RNAs prior to endometrial cancer diagnosis".
Masood Abu-Halima, Andreas Keller, Lea Simone Becker, Ulrike Fischer, Annika Engel, Nicole Ludwig, Fabian Kern, Trine B. Rounge, Hilde Langseth, Eckart Meese, and Verena Keller, 2022. "Dynamic and static circulating cancer microRNA biomarkers – a validation study".
Sinan U Umu, Hilde Langseth, Verena Zuber, Åslaug Helland, Robert Lyle and Trine B Rounge, 2022. "Serum RNAs can predict lung cancer up to 10 years prior to diagnosis".
Hilde Langseth, Sinan Ugur Umu, Cecilie Bucher-Johannessen, Ronnie Babigumira, Magnus Leithaug, Marianne Lauritzen, Paolo Vineis, Giske Ursin, Robert Lyle, Trine B. Rounge, 2021. "Data Resource Profile: thousands of circulating RNA profiles of pre-clinical samples from the Janus Serum Bank Cohort".
Dominique Scherer, Marcela Dávila López, Benjamin Goeppert, Sanna Abrahamsson, Rosa González Silos, Igor Nova, Katherine Marcelain, Juan C. Roa, David Ibberson, Sinan U. Umu, Trine Ballestad Rounge, Stephanie Roessler, and Justo Lorenzo Bermejo, 2020. “RNA Sequencing of Hepatobiliary Cancer Cell Lines: Data and Applications to Mutational and Transcriptomic Profiling”
Joshua Burton, Sinan U. Umu, Hilde Langseth, Tom Grotmol, Tom K. Grimsrud, Trine B. Haugen and Trine B. Rounge, 2020. “Serum RNA Profiling in the 10-Years Period Prior to Diagnosis of Testicular Germ Cell Tumor”.
Johannes Brägelmann, […], Sinan U. Umu, Trine B. Rounge, Odilia Popanda, Justo Lorenzo Bermejo, 2020. "Epigenome-Wide Analysis of Methylation Changes in the Sequence of Gallstone Disease, Dysplasia, and Gallbladder Cancer".
Andreas Keller , Tobias Fehlmann , Christina Backes , Fabian Kern , Randi Gislefoss , Hilde Langseth , Trine B. Rounge , Nicole Ludwig & Eckart Meese, 2020. "Competitive learning suggests circulating miRNA profiles for cancers decades prior to diagnosis".
Umu SU, Langseth H, Keller A, Meese E, Helland Å, Lyle R, Rounge TB, 2019. "A 10 year prediagnostic followup study shows that serum RNA signals are highly dynamic in lung carcinogenesis"
Rounge TB, Umu SU, Lyle R, Langseth H, et al 2018. "Circulating small non-coding RNAs associated with age, sex, smoking, body mass and physical activity".
Umu SU, Langseth H, Bucher-Johannessen C, Lauritzen M, Leithaug M, Lyle R, Rounge TB, et al 2017. "A comprehensive profile of circulating RNAs in human serum"
Fehlmann T, Langseth H, Rounge TB, Umu SU, et al 2017. "A high-resolution map of the human small non-coding transcriptome".
Keller A, Rounge TB, Langseth H, et al 2017. "Sources to variability in circulating human miRNA signatures".
Rounge TB, Langseth H, Lauritzen M, et al. 2015. "microRNA Biomarker Discovery and High-Throughput DNA Sequencing Are Possible Using Long-term Archived Serum Samples".
Keller A, Langseth H, et al. 2011. "Stable serum miRNA profiles as potential tool for non-invasive lung cancer diagnosis".