Modern Oncology and Radiotherapy Centre St. Marina was opened at a formal ceremony today in Varna. The Rector of MU-Varna Prof. Dr. Krasimir Ivanov, the Minister of Health Petar Moskov, the Minister of Youth and Sports Krasen Kralev and the Minister of Regional Development Lilyana Pavlova cut the ribbon. The ceremony was attended by the Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, who said, "I believe that the problems of cancer patients will be solved to a great extent at this modern hospital, and many more patients will be treated in Varna." Dr. Moskov congratulated the management of St. Marina University Hospital, and said, "I expect the sad caravan of people travelling abroad for treatment to cease." The event was attended also by the District Governor Stoyan Pasev and the Mayor of Varna Ivan Portnih.
The Oncology and Radiotherapy Centre St. Marina, supplied with high-tech equipment, was built under Operational Programme "Regional Development", with funds from the European Union, amounting to 18 million lev and own resources, amounting to 1.2 million lev. The Radiotherapy Clinic, a part of the newly opened Centre will provide accessible, timely and quality radiotherapy to all cancer patients who need it, and the Bulgarian patient will not have to wait for months on end or seek high-tech life-saving radiotherapy abroad. The Rector of MU-Varna Prof. Dr. Krasimir Ivanov emphasized the fact that "these clinics, in addition to all the other clinics at St. Marina University Hospital have made Varna University Hospital a leading complex oncology centre in Bulgaria."
The specialists at the University Hospital work under international standards and protocols and apply state-of-the-art equipment at international level. At present the hospital is the only one in our country equipped with two high-tech linear accelerators of that class, and the team consists of young and erudite practitioners who have gained experience and knowledge at leading world clinics.
The Oncology and Radiotherapy Centre includes Chemotherapy Clinic and Hematology Clinic. St. Marina University Hospital also has a Children's Hematology/Oncology Clinic, Diagnostic Imaging Clinic, Clinic of General and Clinical Pathology and all the modern therapeutic and diagnostic structures. The cycle of treating cancer patients has been completed with the establishment of the Radiotherapy Clinic since it is now possible to apply a complex approach in the treatment of malignancies, which has been implemented by leading world centres in Israel, the USA, Germany, France, and more precisely Surgery, Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy. The third linear accelerator of the highest class for stereotactic radiotherapy and radiosurgery, known to the patients as Cyber knife, is to be installed by the end of 2015. Thus the newly opened Centre will become the biggest and the most modern Radiotherapy Centre in Bulgaria.
St. Marina University Multiprofile Hospital for Active Treatment - Varna is the biggest consultative and diagnostic medical university complex in northeastern Bulgaria, providing services to the population of the whole country. The hospital complex has more than 1200 beds, the most modern equipment and highly qualified staff - university lecturers, national and regional consultants. It is the only high-tech hospital in northeastern Bulgaria for treatment of the most severe diseases, including cancer.
Approximately 30 000 cancer patients are diagnosed in Bulgaria annually. Many of them need radiotherapy. However, 40 percent of them did not receive it up to now. That's about 6 000 patients annually. It was impossible to cover all the patients entirely because the available equipment was insufficient. This resulted in establishing long waiting lists. Due to lack of sufficient high-tech radiotherapy in Bulgaria, some patients were waiting for months on end, while others were forced to search for expensive treatment abroad.
The available high-tech equipment in Varna can be used for patients with diseases requiring application of radiotherapy such as skin tumors, CNS tumors, head and neck tumors, thoracic tumors, breast tumors, tumors of the gastrointestinal system, gynecological tumors, urogenital tumors, hematologic tumors, tumors of the soft tissues and bones, childhood tumors, brain, bone, etc. metastasis, benign tumors (pituitary adenomas, neurinoma of the auditory nerve, etc.), osteo-degenerative diseases, benign conditions (thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy, arteriovenous malformation, trigeminal neuralgia, prevention of heterotopic ossification).
