Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital live-tweeted colon cancer surgery this morning to raise awareness about prevention and treatment for the disease.
Cancer surgeon Dr. Shady Ashmalla performed the procedure, which got underway shortly after 8 a.m. EST and took about two hours.
Ashamalla and his team provided updates, photos and short videos as they performed a laparoscopic right hemicolectomy, a minimally invasive colon cancer procedure. They used the hashtag #SBcancer.
A surgical oncology fellow from the University of Toronto, Dr. Vanessa Palter, was also part of the team sending tweets about the procedure and answered questions from the public.
According to Sunnybrook, colon cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed type of cancer in Canada. There is a 90 per cent chance that it is curable if caught at the earliest stage, the hospital said.
Adults aged 50 and over should be screened, regardless of their family history of the disease.
The colon cancer surgery live tweet event came a day ahead of a similar initiative by Toronto East General Hospital, which will live tweet prostate cancer surgery on Thursday morning. CTVNews.ca will have a live blog of that event, beginning at 7:30 a.m. EST.
This is not the first time Canadians have been given a live account of what goes on in the operating room. Sunnybrook Hospital tweeted a heart bypass operation during Heart Health Month in February.
Review the operation from our live blog of Wednesday's surgery here:
