This is the category with the longest stays, the largest deposits and the most paperwork, and the one where a foreign patient depends most on the hospital's international centre. The three articles here cover the three ways people arrive: asking a Korean hospital for a second opinion on records sent ahead, making first contact with a university hospital, and coming for treatment itself with a realistic picture of how it is sequenced and how long it takes.
Cancer & serious illness in Korea
Second opinions, records to send ahead, deposits, and realistic stay lengths.
The articles
Second opinion from a Korean hospital
What records to send ahead, how the deposit and review process usually works, and a realistic stay length if the second opinion leads to further tests.
International clinics: how to contact
What a university hospital's international healthcare centre actually does, how a first enquiry should be written, and what happens between your email and your first appointment.
Cancer treatment: procedure & stay
How treatment is sequenced for a patient arriving from abroad, how billing and deposits work across a long stay, and the practical decisions about housing, caregivers and going home.
#What is different in Korea
- Cancer care for foreign patients runs almost entirely through the international healthcare centres of large hospitals and the National Cancer Center, which publish their own referral procedures. The articles quote those procedures rather than an agency's version of them.
- Remote case review usually requires your records in a specific format and may carry a review fee or deposit; each hospital sets its own, so the articles tell you what to ask rather than stating a figure.
- A medical visa (C-3-3, or G-1-10 for longer treatment) is issued on the hospital's paperwork, and a companion can usually apply alongside. The visa guide covers it; the 1345 immigration line answers extension questions in English.
- Under Article 21 of the Medical Service Act you are entitled to copies of your records and imaging; the articles list the Korean names of the documents your home oncologist will need.
#How a cancer trip is shaped
A second opinion may need no trip at all, or a week if it leads to repeat tests. Treatment is measured in weeks to months, is planned in cycles, and the departure date is set by the oncologist, not the airline. Deposits are staged, and the articles explain what happens to a deposit if a plan changes after you arrive.
#Where to start
If you have a diagnosis and records, the second-opinion article. If you do not yet know which hospital, the international-clinics article on how to write the first email. Then the visa guide and the guide on what happens if something goes wrong, which explains the K-medi mediation route that exists specifically for foreign patients.
The general guides cover the parts that apply to every procedure — quotes, payment, interpreting and stay length.