Heikki Joensuu - Biography#

Heikki Joensuu did the International Baccalaureate examination at the United World College of the Atlantic, U.K., in 1975. He graduated in Medicine in the University of Turku, Finland, in 1981, where he specialized in Oncology and Radiotherapy in 1981-1987. We defended his Ph.D. thesis in 1987 and was nominated as Adjunct Professor of Experimental Oncology in the University of Turku in 1988 and Adjunct Professor of Clinical Oncology and Radiotherapy in 1990.

He was nominated as full Professor of Oncology and Radiotherapy in the University of Helsinki in 1994, which position he held until the year 2019. He was the Physician-in-Chief of the largest cancer clinic of Finland, Department of Oncology, Helsinki University Hospital in 1994 to 2013, and Medical Director in 2000-2009. He worked as Academy Professor, University of Helsinki, in 2010-2014, and as Research Director, Comprehensive Cancer Centre Helsinki in 2015-2018. He was Vice President, Orion Pharma, Espoo, Finland, from December 2017 until August 2020. Since August 2020 he has worked as part time Department Head, Comprehensive Cancer Center Helsinki and as part time Research Director in the Helsinki University of Helsinki, and as the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board, Orion Pharma, Espoo, Finland, and the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board, Neutron Therapeutics Inc, Danvers, MA, USA. He is also the head a translational research group at the University of Helsinki.

Heikki Joensuu was one of the founders of the Finnish Breast Cancer Group in the 1990’s, and has since then acted as a Principal Investigator in several clinical trials in breast cancer, some of which are international multicentre trials. He treated the first GIST patient with imatinib (STI571) in 2000, which led to initiation of international multicentre trials and approval of imatinib (Glivec) for the treatment of advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) in 2003. He was subsequently involved with several translational and clinical studies in GIST and was the Principal Investigator in the key trial (Scandinavian Sarcoma Group XVIII/German trial) that established 3-year duration imatinib as the current standard adjuvant treatment for patients with high-risk GIST.