Päivi Lähteenmäki graduated from the Medical School at the University of Turku in 1984, where she also specialized in Pediatrics and
PediatricHematology and Oncology. She defended her thesis in 1999 on Effects of
childhood cancer on patients and their families - physical and psychosocial
aspects. She worked in 2002 as a post-doc Clinical and Research Fellow at Bristol Sick Children’s Hospital BMT
Unit, Bristol, UK. Subsequently, she has
worked as a Consultant at the Department of Pediatrics, University of Turku.
Since 2008, she has been Docent (Adjunct Professor) of Pediatric Hematology and
Oncology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Turku, and Head of the Division of Pediatric
and Adolescent Hematology/Oncology at Turku University Hospital in Turku,
Finland. Currently she works also as the Chief of the Swedish Childhood Cancer
Registry at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.

During the
years, Päivi Lähteenmäki has served as the chairman or a board member of the Nordic Society of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology as well as the
Finnish Association of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology. In 2012-2014, She was the chair of
a group planning the establishment of childhood cancer late-effect clinics in
Finland. In 2016, she was awarded the Finnish Cancer Association Price, Oncologist
of the year in Finland.

Päivi
Lähteenmäki´s major
research interest lies in the late-effects of childhood cancer. In year 2000, she
founded her own research group and initiated a long-term research project called
“Health and Quality of Life in Patients with Early Age Onset Cancer” including
the epidemiology, diagnosis, prevention, and overall societal impact of the
late sequelae of cancer and its treatments. Päivi Lähteenmäki
has been actively involved in international research collaboration. In 2006, she
started a collaboration with 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 epidemiology, biology, treatment
and survival of children with cancer and severe hematological diseases).

Since 2008, clinical pediatric hematology and oncology at the Department
of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, University of Turku.