Key projects 2015–2020

The Cancer Society and the Cancer Foundation Finland have four strategic goals, which are reflected in the key projects implemented in 2015–2020.

Key projects

These pages provide more information about the key projects:

The Cancerorganisations work to boost the prevention and early detection of cancer

Strengthening health-promoting lifestyles among young people

The aim of this project is to provide young people with knowledge, skills and encouragement associated with healthy lifestyles, and to improve their potential and ability to implement them. The project is promoted through a variety of activities: Programme to reduce smoking among young people; Fressis — Promotion of young people’s health; and the Good Day project.

Improving the operating environment for nationwide cancer screenings

The key project Improving the national cancer screening programme´s environment has the following goals: development of cancer screening, where their steering and management will be done centrally and with modern methods. To make cancer screening flexible for municipalities, the Finnish Cancer Registry offers municipalities the service of screening invitations. Within the framework of the key project, the processes of screening invitations have been renewed and developed further. As a result of these actions, the service for cancer screenings has expanded and covers now about 80 % of the municipalities in Finland. In this way everyone participating in cancer screening gets the invitation to the right address.

The Cancerorganisations support the development of cancer treatment

Project to evaluate the outcome of cancer treatment and the patient’s quality of life

The aim of this key project is to develop good and effective cancer treatment in our country by promoting the establishment of national quality registers for cancer. The registers collect information about the treatment given, the outcome of treatment, and the harms, thus making it possible to assess the effectiveness of treatment both nationwide and regionally. This quality register system also provides reliable information to support research work and to prepare care guidelines. In addition, the project takes account of the potential to utilise the information reported by the patient on the quality of life and the long-term harms of treatment.

Costs of cancer treatment in 2009–2025

Thanks to a new application, the costs of cancer treatments can be tracked. The strategic key project was co-financed by LocalTapiola and the Cancer Foundation Finland. In December 2018, the Cancer Foundation Finland was the first in the world to publish an application for the annual tracking of a country’s cancer costs. The application created by the Cancer Foundation Finland together with the Nordic Healthcare Group provides the basis for developing treatment for one of the most common diseases in the country. The purpose of the service is to provide healthcare professionals, decision-makers, the media and the general public with up-to-date information on the total costs of cancer. In addition, the Nordic Cancer Union decided in 2018 to conduct a comparative Nordic study on the costs of cancer treatment.

The Cancerorganisations promote good life despite cancer

The goal of the key project entitled A good life despite cancer has been to create an operating model where the Cancer Society and the Cancer Foundation Finland stand by patients and their loved ones. The operating model ensures that patients and their loved ones reach the sources of accurate information and receive the support they need at every stage of their cancer. The goal is to make the Cancer Society and the Cancer Foundation Finland a natural element of the patient’s entire treatment chain.
The steps taken during the key project include a training programme for peer support persons and palliative care support persons and guidelines that also consider the needs of loved ones. In the coming year, the project will, among other things, continue to develop virtual peer support activities for loved ones.

The Cancerorganisations strengthen cancer research

Development of the Finnish Cancer Registry’s own research and research services

The goal of the project is to utilise population-based research methods and data in order to support health policy decision-making with regard to cancer prevention, early diagnosis and treatment. Another goal is to develop the Cancer Registry’s services for researchers and other users so that they are more customer-friendly and meet the needs of different target groups. Among the concrete products developed in the project are interactive reports and web-based survey tools, which will enable more rapid answers to questions posed by researchers and other users.

The Cancer Registry’s own research strategy guides the main lines of research. The main focus is on research topics that have considerable importance at population level and can be applied in society’s decision-making. The Cancer Registry’s research concentrates specifically on topics that are not studied elsewhere or about which the required expertise is lacking elsewhere.

Raising the standard of Finnish cancer research

The Cancer Foundation Finland is Finland’s most important private sponsor of cancer research. The goal of the key project implementing the strategy is to raise the standard of Finnish cancer research and to double the total amount of grants from approximately EUR 3.5 million (2014) to EUR 7 million (2020). We reached this goal ahead of schedule: in autumn 2018, the total amount of grants awarded by the Foundation exceeded EUR 7 million. The sum also includes grants paid from the funds of the Cancer Society of Finland. During its 70th anniversary year, the Cancer Foundation also drew particular attention to the reduction of government support for health research conducted at university hospitals, and commissioned a survey on the financial situation of cancer researchers.