Care pathway for a breast cancer patient

A breast cancer nurse will call you within approximately 3 days after the referral is received. You will then be informed about your first outpatient clinic visit and any additional examinations needed at this time. We will also tell you the preliminary timing of your operation and any other things you need to know. 
 
If necessary, you may also contact the appointment and counseling line yourself on weekdays between 13:00 and 15:00 at 09 471 76328. 

You may call the breast cancer nurse about any concerns you have, on weekdays between 13:00 and 15:00 at 050 427 0509. 

On the day before surgery, we will perform a sentinel node scan by lymphoscintigraphy at Meilahti Hospital if necessary. 

You will have a follow-up appointment about two weeks after the operation. At the follow-up, we will evaluate your health and report on the surgical outcome. Within two weeks or so of the follow-up, you will be invited to an appointment with an oncologist. The oncologist will tell you what additional treatments are recommended for you.

A customized plan for your continued treatment is prepared at a physicians’ meeting after breast cancer surgery. On the basis of this plan, we will book your first oncologist appointment after your breast cancer surgery at the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the 

Chemotherapy Unit 

• if chemotherapy is tentatively planned or 
• if the patient will have no radiation therapy at all, or at the 

Radiation Therapy Ward 

• if the patient will have radiation therapy only or 
• if both radiation therapy and hormone therapy are planned as further treatment. 

 
Your appointment is usually about 3 to 4 weeks after the operation. The treatment usually begins about one month after the operation, depending on how the wounds are healing. 

The appointment usually includes reviewing your treatment plan, its implementation, and treatment side effects with both the oncologist and a nurse. Depending on the individual plan, laboratory tests or imaging (full-body computer tomography) may already have been performed by this time. The medical history form should be filled out in advance. 

Only about 5% of Finnish breast cancer patients receive an initial diagnosis of metastasized breast cancer, meaning that the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. However, some patients who have early-stage breast cancer may later develop recurrent breast cancer in the metastatic form. 

We hold information sessions at the Comprehensive Cancer Center where we review things related to the ending of a breast cancer treatment period and to the monitoring period.  

At the moment we do not organize information sessions due to COVID situation.

The purpose of monitoring is to answer any questions you might have about the treatment, to give you instructions on how to alleviate any adverse impacts of the treatments, and to identify any local recurrence of your breast cancer at an early stage. 
 
After your initial breast cancer treatments, monitoring at the Comprehensive Cancer Center will continue for a period of 5 to 10 years, depending on your individual needs. We will invite you to come in annually for examinations and/or physician’s appointments. At other times, you may contact us through the monitoring service in the Noona mobile app when necessary or call the symptom helpline with any breast cancer queries you may have.

Noona

To receive a user account for Noona, call 09 471 74207. The voicemail service will ask you to read out your name, personal identity number, and email address, and these will be recorded. After your call, you will receive a user account and a link to Noona so you can sign in as a Noona user for the monitoring period. Detailed instructions are provided on the starting screen of the Noona app. 

Symptom helpline

In addition to monitoring examinations and/or appointment, the symptom helpline of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, 09 471 74241, is available on weekdays between 08:00 and 16:00. When leaving a message on the symptom helpline voicemail, clearly and briefly state your name, personal identity number and reason for calling. A breast cancer nurse will call back within two working days and make arrangements for additional examinations or an appointment as needed. 

Surgery

Table 1: Average wait time of breast cancer patients, from the time when their referral is received to their initial outpatient clinic appointment. Average wait time from initial appointment to surgery.

Medication

Table 2: Average wait time of breast cancer patients, from the time when their referral is received to their initial outpatient clinic appointment. Average wait time from initial appointment to starting medication.