Cancer & Serious Illness

In brief

In 2025, rare diseases and cancer were the most frequent serious diagnoses among international patients in Korea, with 9,523 and 6,536 patients respectively.

Serious illness is a small part of medical travel to Korea, but it is the part in which the stakes are highest. The official statistics count it by diagnosis rather than by speciality: rare diseases and cancer lead, followed by heart disease, severe intractable diseases and cerebrovascular disease, which includes stroke.

These patients come from rather different countries from those seeking cosmetic care. Kazakhstan sent the most cancer patients in 2025, at 21.8%, followed by the United States, China, Russia and Mongolia; the United States led for rare diseases and for heart disease.

Such care is concentrated in tertiary general hospitals (상급종합병원), which received 60,858 international patients in 2025, one in ten of them as inpatients.

What is offered

• Second opinions on an existing diagnosis
• Diagnostic investigation, including PET-CT and MRI
• Cancer surgery, including robotic and minimally invasive surgery
• Chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy
• Radiotherapy, including proton therapy
• Cardiac procedures, from stents to heart surgery
• Treatment of stroke and other cerebrovascular disease
• Diagnosis and management of rare diseases

How matters are arranged in Korea

• Serious illness is usually treated in tertiary general hospitals, which are designated as such by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Many run an international healthcare centre (국제진료센터) that arranges appointments, interpreters and payment.
• Send your records before you travel: reports, scans on disc, pathology reports and, if the hospital asks for them, pathology slides or tissue blocks. A specialist will usually review them before confirming that treatment in Korea is appropriate.
• Patients not covered by Korean national health insurance pay the full cost, and a deposit may be required before admission. Ask for a written estimate, and how it would change should the plan change.

Official fees in Seoul

The non-covered fees that hospitals and clinics in Seoul report to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. Ask for a written quotation all the same: it is the fee you will actually be charged.

Planning your stay

• A second opinion may take a week or two from first contact, including the review of your records. Surgery or a course of treatment can mean several weeks or months in Korea; chemotherapy and radiotherapy are given in cycles.
• Decide from the outset how treatment will continue at home: who will provide follow-up care, which medicines you will need, and how results will reach your own doctors.
• Check whether your insurance covers treatment abroad, and whether your insurer must approve the plan in advance.

The risks, plainly stated

Questions to put to the clinic

For a few words of Korean at the reception desk, Day1Korean has short conversations to listen to and repeat.

Who ought to treat you

Board-certified specialists working as a team. For cancer: a medical oncologist (혈액종양내과), a surgeon and a radiation oncologist (방사선종양학과). For heart disease: a cardiologist (순환기내과) or cardiothoracic surgeon (흉부외과). For stroke: a neurologist (신경과) or neurosurgeon (신경외과).

Before you book, use our safety checklist to confirm the clinic’s government registration and the doctor’s licence.