Single-centre study reports a 84% five-year overall survival rate for paediatric solid tumours.

Aim: We investigated the characteristics and outcome of paediatric patients with solid tumours diagnosed and treated at the Tampere University Hospital, one of the five tertiary referral centres in Finland, for children and adolescents with malignancies.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study collected data from hospital medical records on survival, diagnosis, age, sex, tumour size and stage at diagnosis. We also observed the disease recurrence and use of autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Development of a research dedicated archival system (TARAS) in a university hospital.

Recent healthcare policies have influenced the manner in which patient data is handled in research projects, and the regulations concerning protected health information have become significantly tighter. Thus, new procedures are needed to facilitate research while protecting the confidentiality of patient data and ensuring the integrity of clinical work in the expanding environment of electronic files and databases. We have addressed this problem in a university hospital setting by developing the Tampere Research Archival System (TARAS), an extensive data warehouse for research purposes.