Lymphoma Project by the University of Eastern Finland and Medaffcon Generates Over Ten Publications

Outi Kuittinen, Professor of Oncology at the University of Eastern Finland, is pleased and with good reason: The lymphoma research project has proven to be an exceptionally versatile source of new knowledge. The project includes at least two doctoral researchers, and its results are expected to generate well over ten scientific articles.

The real-world evidence (RWE) study covers all lymphoma patients diagnosed in Finland from 2000 to 2019. The data has been compiled from seven registries. The research team comprises members from the University of Eastern Finland and Medaffcon.

“There is an enormous amount of data. Together with Medaffcon, we are analyzing it. We are dividing and structuring the data into appropriately sized pieces with clinically interesting content that we can publish as separate articles,” says Outi Kuittinen.

According to Kuittinen, the data will provide material for research for another 2–3 years. “I estimate that this will result in 10–20 articles,” she says.

Concerns About Long-Term Side Effects of Treatment in Hodgkin Lymphoma

The first article of the RWE research project was published this fall in the Blood Cancer Journal.   It discusses the mortality of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma, their profiles, and the causes of their deaths. How many die from lymphoma, how many from treatment side effects, and how many from other causes? The article also examines how mortality has changed over 20 years.

The survival rates of younger patients have improved since 2010, likely due to advances in salvage treatments. However, the prevalence of long-term side effects remains a concern.

The study emphasises the importance of monitoring long-term effects in young patients and the need for more effective and tolerable treatment options for older patients.

“Young patients have excellent treatment outcomes, but the same individuals face an increased risk of dying from other diseases caused by the treatments. Therefore, we have to emphasise how to modulate the therapies in order to reduce long-term side effects while keeping the excellent disease control,” Outi Kuittinen explains.

The results show how the disease burden increases after treatment compared to the general population, with follow-up data spanning up to 20 years.

Several Articles Already in the Publication Pipeline

In addition to the first published article, an epidemiology article on Hodgkin lymphoma has just been published in the European Journal of Public Health. The article describes how the disease’s prevalence changes as survival rates increase.

“A growing group of survivors has undergone treatment and faces health challenges. They should receive special healthcare attention to prevent the realisation of treatment side effects,” Outi Kuittinen states.

Another upcoming article will examine survival rates for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma – the most common type of lymphoma in Finland – the factors influencing these rates, and the prevalence of long-term side effects among patients. Two articles on T-cell lymphoma are also being prepared.

“One article will explore how having Hodgkin lymphoma affects young people’s number of children. After completing that, we’ll investigate how the disease impacts other aspects of life, such as education, income levels, marital status and overall life management,” Kuittinen adds.

Clinicians Know the Disease, Medaffcon Understands the Data

Analysing the vast amount of data has required effective collaboration between the team members.

“We clinicians, of course, understand the disease and what is relevant and important to examine. Medaffcon, on the other hand, knows how to retrieve and analyse data. They understand the statistical pitfalls that can arise in analyses,” Kuittinen says.

The University of Eastern Finland contributes four senior researchers and several doctoral candidates. Medaffcon provides a team of RWE-study specialists, while Takeda supports the study.

“We’ve developed a way to work together and learned to understand each other’s language. We write the article, and Medaffcon handles the statistics section,” Kuittinen says.

Anna Anttalainen, a data scientist at Medaffcon, has been responsible for most project analyses and calculations. She praises the collaboration as highly effective and describes the project as extremely interesting.

“When the data arrived, I preprocessed it into an analysable format. Together with clinical experts, we decided on the research questions and proper statistical approaches,” Anttalainen explains.

She finds contributing as an external expert while working with an academic team fascinating.

“We’ve developed a good mutual understanding of what can be done and how to present the findings,” Anttalainen concludes.

Read more:

Survival of patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma in Finland: a national population-based analysis. Hannuksela N, Partanen A, Anttalainen A, Ukkola-Vuoti L, Toppila I, Vikkula J, Marin K, Kuitunen H, Miettinen T, Kuittinen O, Rönkä A. Blood Cancer Journal (2024).

Increasing incidence and prevalence of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Finland: a population-based registry study. Antikainen T, Hannuksela N, Anttalainen A, Partanen A, Rönkä A, Kuitunen H, Ukkola-Vuoti L, Toppila I, Miettinen T, Kuittinen O. European Journal of Public Health (2025).

Find more RWE study summaries here.