Medical Tourism for Cancer Patients: Advantages and Features

Medical tourism has been extremely developing during the last 10 years. Patients all over the world leave their places of residence and go to other countries for medical assistance: starting from cosmetic surgery to treatment of severe diseases like cancer. 

The reasons why people look for oncology treatment overseas are the following:

Effective/new therapies. A lot of people head to other countries for accessibility of new oncology treatment, not available in their native country. It can be new chemotherapy drugs, more precise radiotherapy, robotic surgeries, etc.

Fast treatment. In many countries, a patient needs to wait to receive treatment covered by insurance. However, people with cancer rarely have time to queue and are forced to look for the best worlds’ cancer hospitals abroad.

Lower prices. Often some procedures or therapies can be cheaper in foreign centers than in domestic medical institutions. For instance, a bone marrow transplant will cost about $30,000 in India, while in Germany about $200,000.

Let’s consider how and where to get the best cancer treatment in the world for an international patient.

Top destinations

The most important thing for every medical tourist is to decide where to go for treatment. Most people choose countries with advanced level healthcare first, the cost of treatment plays a secondary role. The best countries for cancer treatment in the world are:

■ Germany, Israel, Spain, Italy (high price policy)

■ South Korea, Thailand, especially Thai Bumrungrad International Hospital (medium-high price policy)

■ Turkey (low-medium price policy)

■ India (low price policy).

Before visiting any of these countries, you have to get info where your diagnosis is better to treat. For instance, the best places to treat pediatric oncology is Spain, sarcoma — Italy, Germany; prostate cancer — Germany, the Czech Republic, Turkey; breast cancer — Israel, brain cancer — Germany, Spain, Israel, Thailand; organ transplants — India, Turkey, etc.

Most demanded treatments

Cancer patients look for the best treatment in the world to increase their chances for recovery, prolong or improve life expectancy. Among the most popular treatments why people travel abroad are:

Organ-preserving operations

Often, patients with cancer, who live in countries with poor healthcare systems, are offered to do surgery to completely remove an affected organ or even the whole system of organs.

So, patients with breast cancer, prostate cancer, children with retinoblastoma (eye cancer) or sarcoma of the limb have all chances to preserve a damaged organ due to sparing operations and innovative developments applied abroad.

New technologies

Often, to cure a patient or to preserve an affected organ, it is necessary to apply unique options that are possible to be provided on the latest equipment.

For instance, precise robotic-assisted operations, reconstruction of the limb using a patient’s tissues, immunotherapy, proton therapy, etc. Also, to develop the most effective cancer treatment in the world, doctors often use the IBM Watson supercomputer.

Clinical research and trials

Leading medical centers are developing new therapies against cancer. So, patients with advanced stages of the disease can participate in these trials and receive a chance to cure cancer.

How to arrange treatment abroad

Medical tourists with cancer usually do not have much time to monitor and look for the best oncology hospital in their case, learn all features of traveling, and prepare necessary documents. When your life is at stake, it is important to find the best cancer treatment in the world as fast as possible.

The best way is to appeal for assistance to reliable medical tourism agencies or platforms like Bookimed, for instance.

The managers of this international platform have vast experience in picking the country, hospital, and doctor for each case. They will schedule your visit to a medical center, help to prepare documents, book tickets/hotels.

You can also arrange the medical travel by yourself if you know all the nuances regarding where to receive treatment, how to make the trip fast and save.

Summary

Medical tourism makes all the latest developments and treatments available for all patients with cancer. Due to this possibility, people can receive necessary therapies fast and at an affordable price in any corner of the world.

All you need is to pick the right country for treatment, a specialized center, and an experienced doctor. You can find a lot of info regarding these issues on specialized forums or ask medical tourism platforms for assistance.

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