Cancer Society of Finland – Annual Report 2021

The Cancer Society of Finland (CSF) comprises its member organisations, the Cancer Foundation and the Finnish Cancer Registry under a common constitution and strategy.

The Cancer Registry collects cancer data from all over Finland and from patients of all ages. The data can be used to produce reliable statistics to estimate the cancer burden in Finland. The quality and completeness of the data is constantly being studied. In 2021, quality checks have been made more systematic, for example by automatically checking the cancer notifications received by the Cancer Registry.

Two out of three people with cancer recover, and more and more people with cancer live with chronic disease for years or even decades. Due to good treatment outcomes, the need for rehabilitation support for people with cancer is increasing from diagnosis, during and after cancer treatment.

In 2021, total grants amounted to around EUR 7.25 million, funding around 87 researchers. The Cancer Foundation had one grant disbursement in the autumn. There were four major grants, other grants for research teams, psychosocial cancer research grants and dissertation grants. The spring travel grants were not opened as the pandemic meant that most of the travel grants awarded the previous year were still unused and were extended until the end of 2022.

Through social advocacy, the CSF aims to promote its goals at the level of policy decision-making. These goals cover the whole spectrum of activities and relate to all stages of the cancer patient's path.