Will abroad help us?
In most cases, yes! Patients from all over the world are treated in America, Israel, Europe, Turkey, China, Singapore and India. Countries differ only in price levels.
How is bowel cancer treated abroad?
Diagnostics
Thoughtful diagnosis in the global clinic takes place in a short time: from 2 to 5 days. Bowel cancer is conveniently diagnosed using PET-CT or PET-MRI machines. They will show the prevalence of the process, deviations in the work of individual organs and their totality. Both devices are quite accurate and have a low radiation load, but PET-CT does not require the introduction of contrasts, to which many patients are allergic.
A biopsy is also often prescribed — tissue sampling for analysis. In some clinics, they allow you to bring the material with you in flasks or on glasses and not undergo the procedure again.
Treatment
The treatment of bowel cancer abroad is not very diverse. In most cases, surgery is performed with further radiation and chemotherapy.
Minimally invasive surgery. The tumor is removed through tiny punctures or natural openings of the body. In the presence of metastases, several organs are operated on at once, removing all visible tumor tissue. Sometimes a chemotherapy drug is injected into the abdominal cavity. Minimally invasive surgery can also be performed using the Da Vinci robot. He acts more accurately and faster than a surgeon, operating almost bloodlessly.
Radiosurgery. If the size of the tumor is small, then one session may be enough to destroy it. Radiosurgery does not involve real surgical intervention, it is only one of the types of radiation therapy. The radiation dose is high enough and it is not carried out in courses. It is prescribed once instead of surgery or after it to reduce the risk of recurrence.
- Minimally invasive surgery and radiosurgery are common in Singapore, Israel, South Korea, and China.
- Immunotherapy. Antibodies are isolated from cancer cells, cloned, and injected back into the tumor. Phytopreparations, acupuncture, and massages can also help the immune system. Immunotherapy and traditional oriental medicine are common in China.
- Targeted therapy. Previously, chemotherapy drugs killed all cells indiscriminately: both sick and healthy. Israel and Germany were among the first to use drugs that destroy the tumor, but do not touch healthy tissues.
- Transplantation. The most radical method of bowel cancer treatment abroad. An intestinal transplant is a very rare and complex operation and is still considered experimental. The world leader in transplantation is India, where doctors are ready to undertake such an operation. The problem is that it is possible to take an organ for transplantation only after the death of the donor. Waiting for the appearance of suitable material for transplantation can be extremely long, when choosing a recipient (to whom the intestine will be transplanted), priority is given to the citizens of the country.
South Korea
China
India
