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.