Presentation of the Centre

HUS Comprehensive Cancer Centre (HUS CCC) combines expertise in several specialties and its clinicians are actively involved in clinical and translational research. HUS CCC is responsible for the oncological treatment of cancer throughout the area of Helsinki and Uusimaa, with a population of approximately 1.7 million. It has overall responsibility for the treatment of cancer patients, integrating the oncological treatment of all cancer types including haematology and breast surgery. Each year, CCC treats over almost 40 000 patients, of whom 15 000 are new patients. The Centre employs almost 700 health care professionals.

Main Research Activities

HUS supports clinical and translational cancer research from first-in-man and early phase I studies to large Phase III and IV trials, and range from surgical oncology, radiation therapy, medical oncology and haematology to palliative care and research on psychosocial aspects of cancer. The scientists of CCC coordinate and take part in national and international clinical trials. HUS CCC has one of the first global hospital-based neutron accelerators for BNCT (boron neutron capture therapy).

Core Facilities

Medical research and care in Helsinki take place under the umbrella of the Academic Medical Centre Helsinki (AMCH), which consists of the HUS and the University of Helsinki and provides a comprehensive collection of core services. Systems medicine approach has been built for preclinical drug research, predictive biomarker discovery and novel personalized medicine clinical trials. Besides haematological cancers the systems precision medicine approach has been expanded to include lymphomas and solid tumours using innovative organoid and cancer-on-a-chip technologies.

Education

As a university level teaching hospital, HUS CCC is responsible for the teaching of medical students, specialist training for clinical haematology, medical oncology and radiotherapy and for the training of graduate students in the fields of clinical and translational oncology and haematology. The Centre also functions as a training unit for the sub-specialty in breast surgery and palliative medicine. In addition, the Centre educates hospital physicists, nursing students, and a formal cancer nurse education program has also been developed in collaboration with the Helsinki Metropolia University of applied Sciences.

Presentation of the Centre

The Turku University Hospital Cancer Centre is a joint effort between the University of Turku and the university hospital as well as the central hospitals of Pori and Vaasa covering the west coast of Finland. It aims to provide the population with high-quality and efficient cancer treatment based on excellent research and teaching. Our operating environment includes a) prevention of cancer and diagnostics, b) treatment, follow-up, rehabilitation as well as palliative care, c) cancer research, d) teaching and training, and e) the coordination of communications.

Main Research Activities

At the centre we perform clinical trials from phase I to III. and the translational and basic cancer research as well as health science research and effectiveness of the health care services are its strong focuses. The research activities include basic cancer signalling and cell receptor studies as well as a strong focus on cancer imaging and PET diagnostics with over 400 cancer researchers.

Core Facilities

The centre includes all departments of cancer surgery, haematology with allogenic stem cell centre, medical oncology (taking care of 7000 patients / yr), radiation therapy with 10 linacs (5 in university hospital and 5 linacs in central hospitals), CTs and MRI for planning and performing 30 000 treatments / year. The centre has access to isotope medicine and PET centre with close to 20 tracers. All cancer samples are stored at our Auria biobank. Our basic and translational research has access e.g. to animal facilities, NGS sequencing, proteomics unit.

Education

The centre functions as the main university teaching hospital for surgeons, oncologists, physicists and nurses for the west coast of Finland.

Presentation of the Centre

Tays Cancer Centre is a secondary/tertiary referral cancer centre for approximately 0.9 million people. It operates as part of the Tampere University Hospital and covers all aspects of cancer care and research. It has undergone OECI auditing twice (2019 and 2024).

Main Research Activities

Our research areas include prostate cancer, brain tumours, computational biology, ctDNA technology, functional RNAomics, childhood acute leukemic and cancer epidemiology and screening. The multinational research community has over 250 cancer researchers. Clinical/translational research on colorectal, pancreatic and gynaecological cancers is also active. Tays Cancer Centre has a long-standing track record of participation in international clinical cancer trials, with over 100 annually ongoing clinical trials, both investigator-initiated and company sponsored.

Core Facilities

The comprehensive collection of core facilities in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology is available for researchers and includes eg. GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler, Chemagic 360 robot, Chromium ix – GEM- X Universal 3’ gene expression assay service, Chromium iX- single cell molecular analysis and a zebrafish facility.

Education

Tays Cancer Centre/Tampere University Hospital is responsible for teaching of medical students, residents and fellows as well as nursing students in all areas related to cancer diagnostics and treatment. There are two specialized facilities designed for learning of practical skills: Tampere Surgical Education Centre and Tampere Centre for Skills Training and Simulation. Postgraduate education is organized in collaboration with the Tampere University.

Presentation of the Centre

Kuopio University Hospital (KUH) Cancer Centre is a network organization that unites in a multiprofessional approach the key units participating in cancer diagnostics, treatment, research and education in KUH and University of Eastern Finland (UEF).

Main Research Activities

The Multidisciplinary Cancer Research community (RC Cancer) brings together the expertice of research scientists in UEF andclinicians in KUH enabling a unique collaboration between cancer researchers with different backgrounds. The main research areas include translational cancer research, molecular mechanisms, enomics and quantitative imaging features of cancer as well as health economics challenges related to cancer. We also participate in clinical trials and aim at bringing the role of clinical research into the daily clinical practice.

Core Facilities

The network structure of KUH Cancer Centre brings a wide range of core facilities from both KUH and UEF available for patient care and research. The facilities in KUH include e.g., surgical treatment with modern technology, radiotherapy including robotic radiotherapy (CyberKnife®), medical oncology and stem cell transplantations, supportive and palliative care, radiology and nuclear medicine, pathology and genetic services. Biobank of Eastern Finland serves the researchers with high quality sample collections and KUH Science Service Center provides support for research administration.

Education

As a part of the university hospital and UEF, the different units of KUH Cancer Centre participate in educating a large range of health care professionals related to cancer diagnostics, treatment and research.

Presentation of the Centre

Oulu University Hospital, founded in 1973, is the most important public service provider of specialized cancer care in Northern Finland, an area accounting more than half of Finland's geographical area and 741,000 inhabitants. OUH has 900 hospital beds and in total ca. 134,000 patients are treated yearly by 6700 employees.

Main Research Activities

Research strengths include population-level studies, connective and supportive tissue research, and research into gene-environment interaction. Active cancer research is done at all care units (oncology, hematology, gynecology, surgical specialties, and pediatrics) and at the University of Oulu. Main research areas are:

• Basic tumor biology
• Cancer immunology and immunotherapy
• Pediatric, hematological, and gynecological malignancies
• Lung cancer and Lymphomas
• GI- and GU-cancers
• Digital interventions in cancer treatment

Core Facilities

Core facilities for treating cancer patients include department of surgery, oncology and hematology (including radiotherapy unit and facilities for stem cell transplantations), radiology, pathology with molecular diagnostics core, biobank medical research center. Joint research core facilities with University of Oulu include sequencing and bioinformatics, protein analysis, pre-clinical imaging, animal facility, and virus production.

Education

OUH trains medical and biomedical professionals jointly with University of Oulu and Oulu University of Applied Sciences. This includes training of medical, biomedical, and nursing students, and specialist training in medical and radiation oncology, hematological malignancies, surgical oncology, pediatric oncology, radiation physics, and palliative care. Ph.D training programs are carried out jointly with University of Oulu.

Presentation Of The Finnish Cancer Center (Fican)

The Finnish Cancer Center (FICAN) is the federation of 23 Finnish hospitals and medical universities working together to improve cancer care and research.

FICAN is mandated by a governmental decree to plan and coordinate national efforts in cancer prevention, diagnostics, treatment, and rehabilitation, as well as ensure the research base for these activities.

FICAN is organized as a coordinating unit and five regional cancer centers. Of these FICAN South is associated with the HUS Comprehensive Cancer Center, the first Nordic OECI CCC. Three of the regional centers - FICAN East, FICAN Mid and FICAN West - are accredited as OECI Cancer Centers and FICAN North is in the accreditation process.

The Finnish Cancer Center as a national network joined OECI in 2024.

FICAN executes its mandate by facilitating national guidelines and recommendations in screening, diagnostics, and treatments; developing national quality registries; supporting and developing national research and education efforts e.g. in precision cancer medicine (FINPROVE, iCAN, iCANDOC); and supporting the execution of European Beating Cancer Plan and Mission Cancer in a number of EU projects e.g. ECHoS, JANE2, CANDLE, PCM, UNCAN, and eCancer.

Currently a major effort in FICAN is development of the first Finnish cancer strategy with a mandate from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. This is organized as a broad national collaborative effort involving all stakeholders and aimed to identify and engage tools to tackle the cancer tsunami facing Finland during the next decade due to the rapidly aging population.