The National Cancer Strategy: Together against cancer – people-centered cancer prevention and care 2026-2035 was published on November 10th 2025. The strategy aims to develop people-centered services and reduce cancer burden through prevention and early detection, as well as ensure equal cancer treatment to all citizens.

The National Cancer Strategy is guided by four main goals:

1. Strengthen involvement and develop people-centered services
2. Reduce the burden of cancer through prevention and early detection
3. Ensure equitable and effective cancer care
4. Staying at the forefront in a changing environment

Key values ​​in selecting the goals have been reducing inequalities, improving quality of life, the effectiveness of care, and the importance of research.

The strategy is based on comprehensive working group work, which involved over 200 healthcare professionals, researchers, organization representatives and citizens. The strategy work steering group included representatives from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (STM), the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), the Cancer Society of Finland and the Finnish Cancer Center (FICAN).

The National Cancer Strategy serves as a basis for the implementation roadmap, which will be prepared in the next phase. The preparation of the strategy’s implementation roadmap has been started based on the work of the working groups, with the roadmap due to be completed in 2026. The implementation roadmap will go into more detail on the strategy’s suggested actions, timetables, responsible entities and necessary resources. The purpose of the roadmap is to ensure that the strategy’s aims can be implemented in practice, and that the responsibilities and roles of different administrative sectors, wellbeing services counties, national authorities and organizations are clearly defined.

Read the Ministry of Social Affairs press release on the publication of the strategy below (in Finnish):

• Yhteinen suunta ihmislähtöiseen ja vaikuttavaan syövän ehkäisyyn ja hoitoon – kansallinen syöpästrategia on julkaistu

For more information: Tomi Mäkelä, Head of Secretariat, director, Finnish Cancer Center FICAN firstname.surname@fican.fi

Overview of the national cancer strategy presented in the National Cancer Forum 10.11.2025