In Finland, mass screening is organised for
Women and men of a certain age are invited to screening tests at regular intervals. Screening can reveal cancer or a precancerous condition at an early stage, making the treatment easier and improving the prognosis. The screening tests are free of charge and voluntary.
As for cancers, the Finnish national screening programme includes screening for breast cancer and cervical cancer. Wellbeing services counties are responsible for organising the screening tests.
In 2019, a screening programme for bowel cancer was also launched in Finland for the purpose of screening for colon and rectal cancers. At the moment, screening for bowel cancer is carried out in ten wellbeing servicesvo. The aim is to gradually extend the programme to cover the entire country.
In addition to the national screening programme, wellbeing services counties may themselves organise additional screening for the detection of a certain disease or its early stage. However, the systematic mass screening for other cancers does not currently meet the criteria for screening. Such cancers include prostate cancer, lung cancer and skin cancer.
All women aged between 50 and 69 are invited to a breast cancer screening test approximately every two years.
All women aged between 30 and 65 are invited to a cervical cancer screening test every five years. In some wellbeing service counties, women aged 25 also receive the invitation. If the test result is unclear or mild deviations are detected, a repeat test may be carried out after one or two years.
Everyone aged 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70 and 72 are currently invited to screening tests for bowel cancer. The screening programme is now expanding and by 2031 all people aged between 56 and 74 years will be invited to a screening test every two years.
Participation in cancer screening is not mandatory. However, it is recommended.
Cancer screening may reveal a precancerous condition that can be treated before it develops into cancer. Screening also makes early detection of cancer that has already developed possible. The treatment can then be started as soon as possible, and the treatments are usually lighter and the prognosis better.
The majority of cervical cancers are found in women who have not participated in the screening tests. Screening has helped reduce the incidence of cervical cancer by 80 per cent in Finland. Screening for breast cancer in turn prevents about 50 deaths in Finland every year. According to current knowledge, screening also helps to reduce mortality from bowel cancers by approximately 10–40 per cent.
The mass screening of cancers organised by wellbeing services counties is free of charge.
You will be invited to all screening tests concerning you by letter.
The invitations to breast cancer and cervical cancer screening tests state the time and location of the examination. If you cannot make the appointment, you can change it. The place of the examination may be a health and social services centre or a medical centre.
The invitation to the screening test usually arrives a couple of weeks before the examination. If you do not intend to participate in the screening, you should inform the screening unit in accordance with the instructions provided in the invitation.
For the screening for bowel cancer, you have to collect the sample yourself at home when you go to the toilet. Send the sample to the laboratory in the provided return envelope.
The method used in the breast cancer screening test is mammography, which is an X-ray examination of the breasts. In the examination, the breasts are compressed between the plate of the mammography device and the imaging platform one by one. The X-ray images are then examined to see whether there are any tumours or other changes in the breasts.
In the screening test for cervical cancer, either the Pap test alone or both the HPV test and the Pap test are taken. In the Pap test, a cell sample is collected from the cervix of the uterus for the examination of cell changes. The HPV test is used to look for the human papillomavirus (HPV) in a cell sample taken from the cervix of the uterus. The detection of the human papillomavirus may indicate cancer.
The sample you give in the bowel cancer screening test is examined in a faecal immunochemical test. The test is carried out to look for blood that is invisible to the human eye in the stool.
After the breast cancer screening test, you will usually receive a reply by letter in a few weeks. If the X-ray images show changes, you will receive an invitation to further examinations. If the possibility of cancer cannot be excluded in the further examinations, you will receive a referral to a surgical procedure to determine the quality of the tumour.
After the screening for cervical cancer, you will usually receive a reply by letter in a few weeks. If the sample is unclear, minor cell changes are found in it, or the HPV test is positive, you will be invited to a new screening test in 1 to 2 years’ time. If stronger cell changes are found in the sample, you will receive an invitation to a colposcopy. If the sample contains precancerous cells, you will be invited to a procedure to remove the areas containing them.
After the screening test for bowel cancer, you will usually receive the reply by letter at home. If blood has been found in the sample, agree on the follow-up examination with the nurse responsible for the screening. The follow-up examination is usually a colonoscopy. If cancer is diagnosed in connection with the colonoscopy, you will receive the necessary treatment.
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