Health care organizations have a statutory obligation to provide information on every case or strong suspicion of cancer detected in Finland to the Cancer Registry of the National Institute for Health and Welfare, which is maintained by the Finnish Cancer Society.

Data held by the Cancer Registry and the statistics derived from it are used mainly for research and in generating statistics. In addition, the data can be used for formulating health policy and for counselling for the public and for use by the media. The better and more up-to-date the cancer information society has, the better information products and services can be produced to meet society’s needs.