Toni Seppälä

Personalized medicine in surgical context with gastrointestinal cancer organoids & cancer biomarkers @Seppälä Lab. Spotlight on Lynch Syndrome focusing on CRC, in collaboration with EHTG and PLSD. 

Main job at Tampere University and Tampere University Hospital, in addition to Helsinki University and hospital. GI surgeon by training, tenure track Professor at Tampere and PI at University of Helsinki and Applied Tumor Genomics Research Program. Johns Hopkins alumni.

Professor of Cancer Research (tenure track) and Chief physician at Tampere University Hospital. Head of personalised cancer management.

hereditary cancer, Lynch syndrome, early onset cancer, colorectal cancer, cancer biomarkers, patient-derived organoids, cell-free DNA, precision medicine, pharmacotyping

Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology

Cancer research, surgery

Academy of Finland, Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, Sigrid Juselius Foundation, Finnish Cancer Society, Relander Foundation, Emil Aaltonen Foundation

MD, University of Eastern Finland, 2010

Doctor of Medicine (PhD), University of Eastern Finland, 2012

Postdoc, Central Finland Central Hospital, Jyväskylä, Finland, 2012-2015

Postdoc, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland, 2016-2017

Principal Investigator, Helsinki University Hospital, 2018-

Principal Investigator, Helsinki University, Applied Tumor Genomics, Research Program Unit, 2021-

Research Fellow, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, 2019-2021

European Guidance from EHTG and ESCP for Lynch syndrome: an updated third edition of the “Mallorca Guidelines” based on Gene and Gender. Seppälä T. et al. Br J Surg. 2021. May 27;108(5):484-498. doi: 10.1002/bjs.11902.

The different immune profiles of normal colonic mucosa in cancer-free Lynch syndrome carriers and Lynch syndrome colorectal cancer patients. Bohaumilitzky L. et al. Gastroenterology. 2021 Dec 2;S0016-5085(21)03805-1. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2021.11.029.

Solving for Chemotherapeutic Sensitivity: Adapting "Black Box" Methods to Study Patient-Derived Tumor Organoids. Seppälä T. et al. Ann Surg Oncol. 2021 Oct 28. doi: 10.1245/s10434-021-11003-z.

Genetic and epigenetic characteristics of inflammatory bowel disease associated colorectal cancer. Rajamäki K. et al. Gastroenterology. 2021 Aug;161(2):592-607.

Distinct mutational profile of Lynch syndrome colorectal cancers diagnosed under regular colonoscopy surveillance. Ahadova A et al. J Clin Med. 2021. 10(11), 2458; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10112458.

Characteristics of Early-Onset vs Late-Onset Colorectal Cancer: A Review. REACCT Collaborative. JAMA Surg. 2021 Jun 30. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2021.2380.

Variation in the Risk of Colorectal Cancer for Lynch Syndrome: A retrospective family cohort study. The International Mismatch Repair Consortium. The Lancet Oncology. 2021 Jun 7:S1470-2045(21)00189-3. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(21)00189-3.

Uptake of hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy in carriers of pathogenic mismatch repair variants: A Prospective Lynch Syndrome Database report. Seppälä T et al. Eur J Cancer. 2021 May;148:124-133. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2021.02.022. 

The shared frameshift mutation landscape of microsatellite-unstable cancers suggests immunoediting during tumor evolution. Ballhausen A. et al. Nat Comm. 2020. Sep 21;11(1):4740. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18514-5.

The “unnatural” history of colorectal cancer in Lynch syndrome: lessons from colonoscopy surveillance. Ahadova A. et al. Int J Cancer. 2021 Feb 15;148(4):800-811. doi: 10.1002/ijc.33224.

Cancer prevention with aspirin in hereditary colorectal cancer (Lynch syndrome), 10-year follow-up and registry-based 20-year data in the CAPP2 study: a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial. Burn J. et al. Lancet. 2020 Jun;395:1855-1863.

Patient-derived organoid pharmacotyping is a clinically tractable strategy for precision medicine in pancreatic cancer. Seppälä T. et al. Ann Surg. 2020. Jul;272:427–435. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000004200.

Associations of Pathogenic Variants in MLH1, MSH2, and MSH6 With Risk of Colorectal Adenomas and Tumors and With Somatic Mutations in Patients With Lynch Syndrome. Engel C. et al. Gastroenterology. 2020 Apr;158(5):1326-1333. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2019.12.032

Cancer risks by gene, age and gender in 6,350 carriers of pathogenic mismatch repair variants: findings from the Prospective Lynch Syndrome Database. Dominguez-Valentin M. et al. Genet Med. 2020 Jan;22(1):15-25. doi: 10.1038/s41436-019-0596-9. 

No Difference in Colorectal Cancer Incidence or Stage at Detection by Colonoscopy Among 3 Countries With Different Lynch Syndrome Surveillance Policies. Engel C. et al. Gastroenterology. 2018 Nov;155(5):1400-1409.e2.

Cancer risk and survival in path_MMR carriers by gene and gender up to 75 years of age: a report from the Prospective Lynch Syndrome Database. Møller P. et al. Gut. 2018 Jul;67(7):1306-1316

Cancer incidence and survival in Lynch syndrome patients receiving colonoscopic and gynaecological surveillance: first report from the prospective Lynch syndrome database. Møller P. et al. Gut. 2017 Mar;66(3):464-472.