site.btaJust 3% of Bulgarians Think Cancer Is Fully Curable – Survey

Just 3% of Bulgarians think that cancer if fully curable, shows a nationally representative survey on Bulgarians’ attitudes towards cancer, presented here on Saturday on the occasion of World Cancer Day, February 4. The poll was conducted by Trend and commissioned by the Association of Cancer Patients and Friends (APOZ). 

Sixty-two percent believe cancer is treated better in other countries, particularly Turkiye (72%), Israel, and Germany, Evelina Slavkova said during the presentation. Seventy-one percent would undergo a free checkup, the data also show.  One-fourth of Bulgarians have undergone a checkup or examination related to cancer prevention.

By gender, 34% of women and just 14% of men are willing to take preventive measures. Preventive measures increase as a person ages and thus becomes more interested in their health. The prevention level is lower than the average for the country among women living in the capital, despite Sofia offering better access to health services and a higher living standard. This serves to show that the unsatisfactory prevention level in Bulgaria is not the result of difficult access but rather to the insufficiently high health culture of Bulgarians, Slavkova said.

She noted as a positive finding that six in ten Bulgarians think cancer prevention is possible. 

APOZ head Evgenia Alexandrova said that the care for the cancer patient should start from the moment they are informed of the diagnosis. Liliya Assenova of the National Association for Prophylaxis of Fallopian Tube Cancer said that Bulgaria has the lowest share in the EU (8% in 2019, compared to 60% in the Member States on average) of 15-year-old girls who have received the recommended HPV vaccine doses.

Tsvetelina Miloslavova, head of the Bulgarian Lymphedema Association, said that nearly 200,000 Bulgarians are affected by this disease, most often after an oncological surgery. The disease is controlled effectively in Europe through rehabilitation and specific medicinal products, which Bulgaria’s National Health Insurance Fund does not cover.

Lidiya Vitanova of the Together Fighting Sarcoma Association asked why Bulgaria does not recognize the European list of rare diseases, noting that sarcoma being included in the list would allow the training of specialists and the application of contemporary therapies for treating sarcoma.