The Paediatric and Adolescent Haematology and Oncology Ward and Outpatient Clinic take care of children and adolescents with long-term illnesses, taking the whole family into account. As part of the Tyks stem cell transplant unit, the department is also responsible for autologous stem cell transplants of pediatric patients and post-acute care of allogeneic stem cell transplants.

They treat cancer and blood diseases, various bleeding diseases, patients receiving blood products, and autologous stem cell transplants for children and young people. Patients come to us with a doctor’s referral. The department also functions as an emergency department. Cancer patients treated in the unit come directly from home to the department for their acute problems. New patients come through the emergency room. In addition, the department has a day hospital and three outpatient clinics: department outpatient clinic, children’s hematology outpatient clinic and late follow-up outpatient clinic (STEP clinic).

In the department, a physiotherapist, a nutritionist, a psychiatrist or a psychiatric nurse, a hospital chaplain and a teacher also work in multi-professional cooperation.

They belong to the Tyks Children and Adolescent Clinic.
In e-QuOL project, we take part to WP2 and WP3.

Varsinais-Suomen Hyvinvointialue

Turku University Hospital

Päivi Lähteenmäki

Päivi Lähteenmäki

MD, PhD, lecturer (associate professor), Päivi’s areas of expertise are paediatric and adolescent haematology and oncology, late effects of early cancer treatment, and quality improvement and registration.

Päivi was born in 1959 and graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Turku in 1984, where she also specialised in paediatrics and paediatric haematology and oncology. She defended her doctoral thesis in 1999 on the impact of childhood cancer on patients and their families – physical and psychosocial aspects. In 2002, she worked as a post-doctoral clinical and research fellow at the Bristol Sick Children’s Hospital BMT Unit, Bristol, UK. She then worked as a consultant at the Department of Paediatrics, University of Turku. Since 2008 she has been an Adjunct Professor of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Turku, and until 2023 Head of the Department of Paediatric and Adolescent Haematology/Oncology at Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland. She is currently also the Head of the Swedish Childhood Cancer Registry at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.

Over the years, Päivi Lähteenmäki has served as chair or board member of the Nordic Society of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology and the Finnish Association of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology. In 2012-2014, she chaired a group planning the establishment of late effects clinics for childhood cancer in Finland. She has been a member of the Pancare Board since 2023. In 2016, she was awarded the Finnish Cancer Society Prize, Oncologist of the Year in Finland.

Since 2008, Päivis has been teaching at the Clinical Paediatric Haematology and Oncology Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at the University of Turku.

Päivi Lähteenmäki’s main research interest is in the late effects of childhood cancer. In 2000, she established her own research group and initiated a long-term research project called “Health and Quality of Life in Patients with Early Age Onset Cancer”, which includes the epidemiology, diagnosis, prevention and overall societal impact of late effects of cancer and its treatments. Päivi Lähteenmäki has been actively involved in international research collaborations. In 2006, she started a collaboration with the NIH-funded GCCT (Genetic consequences of cancer therapies) consortium, followed by a Nordic project ALiCCS (Adult life in childhood cancer survivors) and an EU-funded project PanCareSurFup (PanCare Childhood and Adolescent Cancer Survivor Care and Follow-Up Studies). In 2018, two new Nordic collaborations started (PACCS Physical activity in childhood cancer survivors; PACS Pregnancy associated cancer). She is also a principal investigator in NOPHO-CARE (A Nordic study on the epidemiology, biology, treatment and survival of children with cancer and severe haematological diseases).

As of May 2024, Lähteenmäki has 132 peer-reviewed international and 13 national publications. (H-index is 32).