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A growing shift in global medicine is seeing more patients travel abroad for life-saving treatments that are either unavailable at home or come at a fraction of the cost, according to an article in Bloomberg.
The trend is being driven by advanced therapies such as CAR-T cancer treatment, which in some countries can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or simply isn’t accessible through national health systems.
One example is Stuart Lye, a 58-year-old from New Zealand diagnosed in 2018 with high-risk myeloma and initially given just three months to live. After years of chemotherapy, stem cell transplants, and other treatments, his condition worsened and options at home ran out.
CAR-T therapy was not commercially available in New Zealand, and nearby clinical trials did not match his case. In Australia, the treatment would have cost more than A$500,000 ($350,000).
Lye was eventually connected to a hospital in Shanghai and traveled to China last year. After seven weeks in a clinical trial, his cancer was brought under control. The total cost, including treatment and travel, was about $65,000.
CAR-T works by removing a patient’s immune cells, modifying them in a lab to target cancer, and reinfusing them into the body to attack tumors. In the U.S., the treatment can cost up to $475,000 per infusion, while in China it is significantly cheaper.
According to Bloomberg, China is increasingly positioning itself as a destination for advanced medical tourism, offering cutting-edge treatments at lower prices as demand from foreign patients grows.
In contrast, Cyprus’ public health system, GESY, provides broad access to medical care locally, meaning most patients do not face the extreme out-of-pocket costs seen in countries like the United States. However, globally, access to experimental or highly specialized treatments can still depend heavily on where a patient lives and how much they can pay.
China, meanwhile, is expanding its role in this space, offering faster access to some therapies and aiming to compete in the growing global medical tourism market.
Still, challenges remain, including visa issues, language barriers, and concerns about clinical trial oversight. But for patients like Lye, the decision was simple. The treatment gave him time.
Now back in New Zealand, he lives a quieter life, working part-time and undergoing regular check-ups showing stable results.
*With information from Bloomberg
