With Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan (EBCP), the European Commission follows a new approach to cancer prevention, treatment and care. The action ‘OBS-Learning From Progress In Addressing Cancer In Europe’ (OBS-PACE) contributes to this by improving the understanding of the national cancer control situation and policy actions in EU Member States.
OBS-PACE is collecting case studies of innovative actions in cancer research, care, and policy across the cancer care pathway. The case studies mirror the implementation of the EBCP at the national and regional level and can inform new actions to better tackle cancer across Europe. Each case study describes the objective of the new action, its implementation, including enablers and barriers, and its outcomes at the health system level.
25 March 2025 | Case Study
Cancer represents 3%–6% of all healthcare costs in Finland, with significant regional variations in both costs and outcomes of cancer care (Torkki et al., 2018a). While population-based cancer registries provide reliable data on outcomes such as mortality and survival rates, there is a critical need for detailed information on the costs of cancer care. This information is essential for healthcare providers, decision-makers and industry stakeholders to understand cost distributions across categories, cancer types and regions. Plus, patients may also be interested in these cost differences. Comparing cost data with outcome data helps healthcare providers identify performance discrepancies and cost variations, enabling more informed decision-making (Torkki et al., 2022). Regular updates to this data are crucial for creating informative time series.
To address this gap, the Cancer Society of Finland initiated the development of a web-based service Syövän kustannukset Suomessa (Cancer Cost Database) for healthcare providers, decision-makers and other stakeholders. This service (https://syopa.azurewebsites.net) allows users to access and analyze data on the cost of cancer, categorized by cancer type, region and year of diagnosis. For example, users can find the average cost of incident breast cancer in a specific region.
The methodology for data collection and validation was developed through two research projects funded by the Cancer Foundation Finland, with results published in 2017 and 2018 (Torkki et al., 2018a, 2018b). The studies revealed the overall cost of cancer and its trends in Finland. The database is updated annually, with the data being sourced from Kela (Social Insurance Institution in Finland), THL (Finnish Institute for Welfare and Health), Fimea (Finnish Medicines Agency) and the Finnish Cancer Registry. The most recent update is to be published in March 2025. The Nordic Healthcare Group has built the database infrastructure, collects the data and updates the database on an annual basis.
Launched in 2018, the database’s methodology is continuously evolving to enable more relevant comparisons. Future development goals include increasing awareness of the service and enhancing its usage.
Enablers: Finland’s robust national registers ensure the availability of data on direct and indirect costs for each cancer diagnosis nationwide. Governed by the Cancer Society of Finland, this research-based service maintains independence and freedom from external influence. The Nordic Healthcare Group, responsible for data updates and maintenance, acts as a technical partner without political interests in the service’s content.
Barriers: There were no direct obstacles to building this service, as it relies on aggregated data, ensuring compliance with data protection legislation and preventing the identification of individual patients. However, the relatively low support from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health posed an indirect barrier, which could impact the dissemination of this service to more potential users.
Assessing the direct impact of the Cancer Cost Database on health system objectives is challenging. However, awareness of regional differences in cancer costs and outcomes encourages further investigation for the causes of these variations and inequalities. Understanding these inequalities is crucial, as they may relate to patient population differences or diagnostic and treatment protocols.
Lessons learned: The development of this service has demonstrated its feasibility and value to users. However, as an NGO-provided service, it may lack recognition from other health system stakeholders. Integrating this service into the follow-up mechanisms of the new National Cancer Control Plan has the potential to enhance its credibility.
Syövän kustannukset Suomessa (Cancer Treatment Cost Database): https://syopa.azurewebsites.net
For further details on this case study, please reach out to obs-pace@obs.who.int.
Torkki, P., Leskelä, R.-L., Bugge, C., Torfadottir, J.E., Karjalainen, S., 2022. Cancer-related costs should be allocated in a comparable way—benchmarking costs of cancer in Nordic countries 2012–2017. Acta Oncol. 61, 1216–1222. https://doi.org/10.1080/0284186X.2022.2124883
Torkki, P., Leskelä, R.-L., Linna, M., Mäklin, S., Mecklin, J.-P., Bono, P., Kataja, V., Karjalainen, S., 2018a. Cancer costs and outcomes for common cancer sites in the Finnish population between 2009–2014. Acta Oncol. 57, 983–988. https://doi.org/10.1080/0284186X.2018.1438656
Torkki, P., Leskelä, R.-L., Linna, M., Mäklin, S., Mecklin, J.-P., Bono, P., Kataja, V., Karjalainen, S., 2018b. Cancer costs and outcomes in the Finnish population 2004–2014. Acta Oncol. 57, 297–303. https://doi.org/10.1080/0284186X.2017.1343495
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