English-speaking medical concierge · Based in Shanghai, China
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Cancer treatment in China — what to check before you consider travelling

We coordinate remote case reviews and, where it makes sense, treatment. We also tell a lot of people not to come. This page explains how to tell which one you are.

A real person replies within 12 hours — not a bot, and we never cold-call.

Why people look abroad for this — and why the usual argument does not apply

People sometimes assume the argument for treatment abroad is a shorter wait. For cancer that is usually wrong. In Canada, the median wait was 4.2 weeks for radiation oncology and 4.7 weeks for medical oncology, against 48.6 weeks for orthopaedic surgery — cancer is fast-tracked, and the UK and Australia work the same way. If you already have a treatment plan and a date at home, the strong default is to take it. The reasons people genuinely look abroad are narrower: a specific technique or device is not available where they are, or the out-of-pocket cost at home is beyond them.

How long it takes

Two halves. Ours is a promise we already publish site-wide. The hospital's half is theirs to set, and we will not put a number on it for them.

WhenWhat happens
Within 12 hoursA real person replies — not a bot, and never a cold call afterwards.
Within 48 hoursA written response: whether a hospital here can help, what it would involve, roughly how long you would be in China, and what the bill is made of. If the answer is that you should stay at home, that is what it will say.
How many days you would be in China — we have not published a figure here, on purpose. It depends on your case and the hospital sets it, so a number on this page would be a guess dressed up as information. It is the first thing we confirm in writing after a case review, before you book a flight. If another provider gives you a confident figure before anyone has seen your records, ask them who told them.

What the bill is made of

We publish what the parts are before we can publish what they cost. The treatment figure comes from the hospital, per case, once a clinician has seen your records — and our own fee is quoted to you as its own line rather than folded into theirs.

  • The hospital’s charges — which for cancer depend on stage, protocol and how treatment responds, so no ceiling can honestly be published in advance.
  • Diagnostics repeated on arrival. Staging is almost always redone locally before anyone commits to a plan.
  • Accommodation and living costs for a stay measured in weeks or months, usually with someone travelling with you.
  • Our coordination fee — quoted separately with your plan.

Not included:

  • Flights, visas and accommodation — we arrange them, you pay the supplier directly.
  • Anything the hospital finds on examination that changes the plan. If that happens we tell you the moment we know, not afterwards.
  • Treatment at home before or after your trip.
  • Any promise about how treatment will go. Nobody can offer you that, and anybody who does is telling you something they cannot know.

When we will tell you not to come

Not a disclaimer. These are the cases we turn away, and you should check yourself against them before spending any more time on this.

  • You have a treatment plan and a start date at home. Take it. Travel time is treatment time.
  • Your team has told you the situation is urgent.
  • You are looking for a therapy your own doctors have said is not supported by evidence. We do not arrange stem-cell or anti-ageing treatment, and we do not coordinate care whose purpose is to obtain an unproven therapy.
  • You are not well enough to fly, or could not manage weeks away from your own support network.

Start with the records you already have.

A person replies within 12 hours; a written answer follows within 48 hours — including if that answer is to stay where you are.

Questions

No, and you should be wary of anyone who does. We do not publish survival or success comparisons — we are not in a position to make that claim honestly. What a case review gives you is a specialist’s written view on whether they can treat your case and what they would propose. Comparing that against your options at home is a conversation for you and your own doctors.
No. It is marketed heavily in this industry and we will not be part of that. Advertising such treatments to consumers is restricted in several of the countries our readers live in, and we have no evidence base to offer you.
Whether a hospital here believes it can help, what they would propose, roughly what it would involve and what it would cost. It cannot restage your disease, and it is not a second opinion delivered by us — we arrange it, a specialist gives it.
They go to the reviewing specialist and nobody else, over WhatsApp rather than email or a web form, and we delete our copy once they have responded — within 7 days at the latest. We do not read or interpret them ourselves.

Nothing on this page is medical advice, and none of it is a diagnosis. China Medical Journey coordinates care; the treating clinician decides what is appropriate.

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