Professor Inkeri Elomaa Receives the Pohjola and Suomi Mutual Medical Award

Wide cooperation required to improve cancer treatment

The number of cancer patients has tripled since the 1950s. During the same period, cancer mortality has fallen and treatment success has improved from 20 to 70 per cent. This progress is thanks to better imaging and diagnostic techniques. This is the view held by Professor Inkeri Elomaa.

Inkeri Elomaa will receive the 2014 Pohjola and Suomi Mutual Medical Award worth 20,000 euros for her long-term and distinguished life's work with cancer patients.

Professor Elomaa says that new imaging methods have made it possible to adjust the radiation field and the dosage, making radiotherapy more accurate and efficient. Better imaging methods have also had an impact of surgery, with keyhole surgery being used more and more.

Professor Elomaa explains that tissue samples form the foundation of cancer diagnostics, and goes on to explain that new immunohistochemistry and molecular genetics methods have shed light on the nature of cancer and paved the way to targeted drug treatments and individual cancer treatments. This has led to a situation in which cancer patients are treated by a multidisciplinary group, with a surgeon, radiologist, pathologist, molecular geneticist, physicist and oncologist deciding together on the best course of action. Often the team also contains a geriatrician, psychologist, theologist and social worker.

Inkeri Elomaa, 71, is an internationally renowned cancer researcher and oncologist. She has been working at Helsinki University Central Hospital for 35 years, and the last ten years as Chief Medical Officer of the Cancer Clinic in charge of outpatient care. Her work also involves teaching medical students and doctors completing specialisation studies. Elomaa is a specialist in internal medicine, radiotherapy and oncology by education. She has done most of her research in bone cancer, sarcomas and cancers in young adults and their survival.

She understood the importance of team work already in the 1980s and asked a molecular geneticist to join her sarcoma team. This led to cooperation with the Nordic and Italian sarcoma teams. She has published hundreds of scientific articles in Finnish and international journals, but also shared her expertise to patients and the general public on educational and magazine programmes on television and in articles in company and organisation magazines. She has also been a member of various Finnish and foreign scientific communities and organisations. She continues to work as a delegate of the Cancer Society of Finland and honorary chair of the Finnish Colorectal Cancer Association.

Finland Europe's leading countries in cancer treatment

According to Inkeri Elomaa, two out of three cancer patients will get better. There are 30,000 new cases of cancer per year in Finland, with 10,000 dying annually of cancer. Thanks to better treatment, there are over 200,000 cancer survivors in Finland. Our current life style and an ageing population mean that the number of cancer patients will increase.

Elomaa reminds us that although Finland is one of the top countries in cancer diagnostics and treatment, the quality of care must be maintained and we must prepared for higher numbers of patients and higher treatment expenses.

The treatment expenses for cancer have tripled in the last decade and are expected to double again by 2020. Current cancer expenses are about a billion euros per year. By comparison, the same amount is spent by people on tobacco a year, and twice as much on alcohol.

Science and technology help, but the patient is in the core

Elomaa stresses that it is the patient who must be at the centre, and the doctor must learn about their patients. Oncologist may have a long treatment relationship with their patients. If a patients get well, it is obviously good news, but an oncologist must also be prepared to deal with death. If a patient goes to terminal care, it is tough for the doctor, too.

Specific cancer treatments are ended when they no longer work and when they are assessed to do more harm than good. She says it is important that both the patients and their relatives receive an explanation why this decision has been reached and that the decision is made unanimously. At this stage the responsibility for the patient's care is also transferred from the oncologist to primary health care and terminal care specialists.

Professor Elomaa says it is good that terminal care has been given proper attention, with guidelines recently provided by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Further help is provided by Finn Church Aid, which has decided to raise funds to improve terminal care in Finland.

When long-term illnesses are discussed, usually someone brings up active euthanasia, which means assisted suicide or killing the patient. Passive euthanasia, on the other hand, refers to allowing the patient to die by not giving treatment or stopping treatment, but nevertheless continuing to alleviate pain.

"No patient has ever asked me for euthanasia. As an oncologist, best medical practice involving passive euthanasia has always been sufficient for me. I think it would be naive to think that legalising euthanasia would be for the good of people in the cold financial world we live in. Instead I would emphasise terminal care, taking into account all aspects of the patient's life. I recommend everyone to make a living will just for the sake of coming to grips with their own eventual death," says Elomaa.

Clinical research is important

Ms Elomaa emphasises the importance of practical care and research. The doctor in charge of the patient must always be aware of the latest treatment alternatives. Doctors should also actively evaluate new treatment options.

"My career as a researcher began when I was thinking about solutions to practical problems. Yesterday's research is today's treatment," she concludes.

Such thinking resulted in clodronate, which is used to treat bone damage caused by cancer. The drug became a world success when it was published in 1983.

The Pohjola and Suomi Mutual Medical Award is given to a person for significant national and international life's work.  The committee that chose the winner consisted of chairmen of the boards of the Finnish Medical Association, Finnish Medical Society Duodecim, Finska Läkaresällskapet and the Finnish Medical Foundation. The award has been presented annually at the Finnish Medical Convention, the first time in 1981. Professor Inkeri Elomaa will hold a speech titled "Path of Hope" at the Finnish Medical Convention on 10 January 2014 as he receives the award. The award will be presented by Jouko Pölönen, President and CEO of Pohjola, and Jari Sokka, President and CEO of Suomi Mutual.

For more information:
Professor Inkeri Elomaa, tel. +358 400 779 839, inkeri.elomaa@kolumbus.fi
Chief Physician at Pohjola Insurance, tel.  +358 10 253 2418,
anne.lamminpaa@pohjola.fi


Pohjola Insurance Ltd

Pohjola is a Finnish financial services group which provides its corporate and institutional customers with a diverse range of banking, non-life insurance and asset management services and private individuals with an extensive range of non-life insurance and private banking services.

Pohjola is Finland's leading non-life insurer, The Group's non-life insurance service providers comprise Pohjola Insurance Ltd as a non-life insurer, A-Insurance Ltd focusing on insurance for commercial transport, Eurooppalainen Insurance Company Ltd specialising in travel insurance and the Seesam companies in the Baltic States. Pohjola Bank plc (Pohjola) is part of OP-Pohjola Group, the leading financial services group in Finland. OP-Pohjola Group consists of almost 200 member cooperative banks and the Group's central institution, OP-Pohjola Group Central Cooperative, with its subsidiaries and closely-related companies, the largest of which is Pohjola.

Suomi Mutual Life Assurance Company

Suomi Mutual Life Assurance Company was established 123 years ago. Suomi Mutual Life Assurance Company manages the insurance policies of its 200,000 customers and is among the biggest investors in Finland. The value of its investments at the end of the third quarter of 2013 was EUR 6.1 billion. The company no longer underwrites new business.