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Assoc. Prof. Anton Tonev: Rapid Increase in Colon Cancer Rates

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anton Tonev for Darik radio


"The incidence of colon cancer, along with rectal cancer, has been increasing rapidly over the last 20 years. This trend was typical of developed countries 30-40 years ago, but unfortunately it is already apparent in our country as well", pointed out Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anton Tonev from First Clinic of Surgery at University Hospital "St.Marina" in an interview for Darik radio.

 

"The reasons for this negative trend are the increase of stress factors and the way of eating on the run, consuming a lot of byproducts. To tackle that issue cancer prevention is currently being developed in Western Europe and the United States. It includes a series of medical activities similar to immunization schedules for children. Thus oncological diseases could be "caught" and successfully removed in their precancerous stage.

Furthermore, malignancies of the gastrointestinal tract become more frequent in the country. In addition, inflammations and gall bladder stones are among the most common diseases in the abdomen.

 

World practice shows that hernias are more typical of men because they are exposed to heavy loads more frequently." The abdominal surgeon underlined that gall bladder stones are more common in women due to their hormonal profile. According to him, it is necessary to increase the health awareness of Bulgarians and to urge them to actively seek health services.


"Minimally invasive (bloodless) surgery achieves the same and even better results in some cases in comparison to classical open surgery, because thus some of the complications in the classical method are reduced. However, laparoscopy cannot help, and it can be even detrimental in cases where there are prior surgery interventions that have changed the patient's anatomy", explained further Assoc. Prof. Anton Tonev.


"According to a surgical aphorism we can never have 0 and 100 in medicine. It's really very hard to explain to a patient that we cannot guarantee that something will happen in 100% of the cases, although we all wish we could. We work with living people, and each person is an individual case, who has his/her own peculiarities", said the expert.

 

"Technology will continue to play a leading role in the work of surgeons. One of the latest methods is robotic surgery, in which the surgeon operates on from the neighbouring room, and the surgery is performed with the help of robot hands. Anyway, hardly ever will artificial intelligence be able to replace human intelligence", believes the specialist. "Due to the new trends surgeons need to receive not only medical, but also technologically advanced education."

According to Assoc. Prof. Tonev the surgery at Hospital "St. Marina" and in all the other university hospitals in our country are at a world class level. This is accomplished through annual training of Bulgarian surgeons at the most reputable hospitals abroad.