Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Yandong visits the office of Ronald A. DePinho, president of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center on June 21 in Houston. She vowed to deepen existing cooperation in medical research and practice between Anderson and China to curb cancer and other diseases in China. Chang Jun/China Daily

“How can a daughter give up her mom?”

That was what Diana Liu, a Silicon Valley-based businesswoman, asked herself when doctors in China said her 70-year-old mother had three months to live after being diagnosed with advanced-stage small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). SCLC is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women and men in China, with the average five-year survival rate around 15 percent.

Liu had returned to her hometown in Guizhou province in February last year during the Chinese Spring Festival when she got the news about her mother. “Doctors told us the disease is incurable, and the best option for my mom was to relax until death would claim her life within three months,” said Liu. “But, how can a daughter give up her mom?” Liu didn’t.

With a faint gleam of hope, she submitted an expedited US visa application for her mother, and within two weeks she was admitted to the cancer center at Stanford University in San Francisco. After a series of check-ups including oncogene detection, doctors assured Liu that chances were good for her mother’s survival.

Liu’s mother was put into inpatient care and treated with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. “They (doctors) hold my mom’s hands, soothing her and cheering her up,” said Liu. “Assistance seems always within reach. They even include several Chinese-speaking nurses on the team.”

Her mother has been discharged from the hospital and returns for regular primary care every two weeks. She is in stable condition and will stay in the US and won’t travel unless she passes a five-year survival assessment.

The cost

The bill was $60,000 and is expected to go higher, and Liu says, “My mom would have had passed away without seeking medical services here.”

Liu is a strong advocate for what has become known as medical tourism, patients traveling outside their country of residence to receive alternative medical care and services, especially in the United States. “My experience is the best testimonial,” Liu said of seeking medical assistance for her mother abroad.

A McKinsey & Co report estimates that the global medical tourism market has been growing by 20 percent a year. In 2000, it was valued at less than $10 billion and last year it was almost 10 times that.

About 60,000 Chinese have gone abroad every year to seek medical services in recent years, says the Shanghai Medical Tourism Products and Promotion Platform. There are no definitive numbers on how many people from China seek medical help in the US, but healthcare authorities say the number has increased because there are more wealthy people — usually private business owners from second- or third-tier cities — who can afford treatment and, most of all, because they are unhappy with the quality of healthcare services in their country.