The SCANDAT database was originally created for very specific research purposes, to study cancer incidence in blood donors and transfusion recipients, and to investigate the possibility that cancer can be transmitted via blood transfusions. The project has since the beginning been a joint venture between researchers at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, and researchers at the Department of Epidemiology Research, Statens Serum Institut, with collaborators from hospitals and blood banks in Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Uppsala.
The principal investigators of the study are Dr Gustaf Edgren at Karolinska Institutet and Dr Henrik Hjalgrim at Statens Serum Institut, but the work is a wider collaboration involving representatives from several hospitals in both Sweden and Denmark:
- Dr Agneta Wikman, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
- Dr Rut Norda, Uppsala Akademiska Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden
- Dr Marja-Kaisa Auvinen, Uppsala Akademiska Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden
- Dr Henrik Ullum, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Dr Christian Erikstrup, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark