Oncology in Turkey

This section comes first because it matters more than anything else on the page.

• Do not pause or delay treatment you have already been offered in order to arrange travel. Cancer treatment is often time sensitive, and a delay can change what is possible. If you are considering a second opinion abroad, start it alongside your existing plan rather than instead of it.
• Keep your own oncologist involved. Any centre abroad needs your pathology, imaging and staging to say anything useful, and your team at home will be the one continuing your care afterwards.
• Get your diagnosis and stage confirmed first. Without a biopsy result and staging scans, no centre anywhere can propose a real plan, and anyone who does so without them is not worth listening to.
• Be careful with anything presented as a breakthrough. People with cancer are targeted with treatments that have no evidence behind them. Ask what published evidence supports anything you are offered, and check it with your own oncologist before you pay for it.

Nothing on this page is medical advice, and no clinic can promise you an outcome. What is written here is intended to help you ask better questions, not to replace the conversation with your own doctor.

Some doctors had their training abroad, which explains their good English proficiency. Also, their clinics have assistants who communicate in English.

• A second opinion. This is the most common reason and the one that carries least risk, because it adds a view rather than replacing your plan. Many centres will review your records remotely before you travel at all.
• A specific procedure. Stereotactic radiotherapy, a particular operation or a technology that is not available or has a long wait at home can be a defined piece of care with a clear beginning and end.
• Cost. Private cancer care is expensive, and prices in Turkey are often lower than in the UK, western Europe or North America. Cost should be weighed against the difficulty of splitting care across two countries.
• Diagnosis and staging. Where investigations are slow at home, some people travel to have imaging, biopsy and staging done quickly so that treatment can start sooner, wherever it happens.

Cancer care is rarely one price. It is a sequence of episodes, and a quote usually covers one of them rather than the whole course. The listing on this page shows what each centre currently charges for the treatments it offers. What makes quotes differ:

• Your diagnosis and stage, which decide what treatment is appropriate in the first place.
• Whether the quote is for a consultation, a scan, a single cycle, a full course, or an operation.
• The drugs themselves, which vary enormously between regimens and are often the largest single item.
• Imaging and laboratory work before, during and after treatment.
• Hospital stay, and what happens to the price if you need longer than planned or if a complication arises.
• Travel, accommodation and time away from work, over a period that may be longer than you first expect.

Ask for a written quote that names the episode it covers and states what is excluded. Then ask what the likely total looks like if your plan runs its expected course, and what would change it. A centre that will not answer that in writing is telling you something.

Traveling abroad for treatment will open other possibilities or introduce a better, more effective treatment.

• Ask how often the centre treats your specific cancer, at your stage. Volume in your diagnosis matters more than the size of the hospital.
• Ask whether your case goes to a multidisciplinary team, and ask for that in writing.
• Ask who your named oncologist is, and who covers for them when they are away.
• Ask what the centre's accreditation is, and what equipment it uses for the treatment you need.
• Ask what happens if you become unwell during treatment, and what intensive care and emergency cover the hospital has.
• Ask what records they will send to your team at home, in what language, and how quickly.
• Ask whether interpreting is provided, and whether an interpreter is present when you consent and when you are discharged.
• Be cautious with any centre that promises an outcome, discourages you from involving your own doctor, or presses you to decide quickly.

• Collect your pathology report, imaging on disc or by transfer, staging, previous treatment summaries and a current medication list.
• Ask your own oncologist what they would want to know from a second opinion, and take those questions with you.
• Check that you are well enough to fly, and ask about infection risk if your blood counts are low.
• Travel with someone if you can, and plan for the possibility of staying longer than the schedule says.
• Agree in writing before you go: what records come back to your own team, who you contact from home, and what the centre covers if something goes wrong.