CyberKnife® Patients from North America
Healthcare costs are much higher in the USA than in most other countries. Global travellers pay much higher premiums to include cover for North America, which tells its own story!
CyberKnife treatments are now available in many other countries outside the USA. Naturally you may prefer to be treated closer to home, but CyberKnife is often a simple out-patient procedure where you can flly home shortly afterwards.
Alternatively if your case is more complex and requires hospitalisation or you have other medical needs at the same time, the saving in cost could be very substantial. So let's look at your obvious points of concern.
Will I get the same standard of care as at home?
The European CyberKnife Center in Munich, Germany is a private, neurosurgeon-led center and treats more patients in a year than all but a few centers in the USA.
The Iatropolis center in Athens, Greece is is and established tomography and surgery center and has the latest generation (4G) CyberKnife® and treatment planning software, so is equipped to the highest standards for CyberKnife interventions.
Radiotherpie Hirslanden in Zurich, Switzerland operates within the main hospital of Switzerland's largest private healthcare group. Klinik Hirslanden is a full service hospital which boasts an impressive array of the latest high technology medical and surgical equipment, across a wide range of specialities.
Switzerland is famed for its organisation and attention to detail, and also for high quality at high prices! Treatment will still be reasonable compared to the USA though. In fact Radiotherapie Hirslanden's fixed price CyberKnife packages are very competitive with other centers in Europe or the UK.
Will I be able to communicate easily?
CyberKnife surgeons regularly attend international conferences in English so you will be able to communicate easily and ask questions.
What will it cost?
Where will I stay?
The European CyberKnife Center in Munich is a purpose-built out-patient only facility and you will stay in a local hotel.
At the Iatropolis center in Athens you will stay in the center for the duration of your treatment. Where this requires the placement of fiducials first, which must then be allowed to settle, you can move to hotel acommodation for that period or go travelling in the area.
For treatment in Zurich most patients stay in a local hotel, but hospital accommodation is provided for those patients who need it.
For Munich you will be quoted a fixed price, which does not vary if your treatment is then conducted in a single day or over a few consecutive days. In the rare event that any complication or an unrelated medical emergency arises, as could happen anywhere, the University Hospital is next door.
We can give you a good idea of costs immediately upon enquiry. The centers will then confirm price before treatment.
What if I need a few days to rest before or after treatment?
Munich is a fascinating city with many opportunities for trips into the beautiful Bavarian countryside with its decorated houses, lakes and mountains. It is also justly famous for its beer, which is brewed to high local purity laws!
The Athens area offers a wealth of cultural and scenic attractions, from the Acropolis and museums in the center to places like Delphi, Corinth and Mycenae on the mainland and a wide choice of islands, just a short ferry or hydrofoil journey away.
Zurich has a fascinating Old Town and is attractively situated at the head of its own lake. It is a convenient base for visits to the lakes and mountains of central Switzerland, the Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen and a variety of local attractions.
The latest models can offer faster and more accurate treatment, so you may even find that Iatropolis is better equippped than your local CyberKnife center!
The staff at all these centers are also accustomed to international patients and they speak a variety of languages, including English. We quickly put you in direct communication with your chosen center, so you will be assured of this before your treatment.
For Zurich the CyberKnife treatment cost will be fixed, regardless of the number of treatment fractions required. Additional services will be provided and charged for as required, but Hirslanden will give you guidance on this before your treatment is commenced.
For Athens you will be given an indication of the basic CyberKnife® treatment cost, the projected number of daily treatments required and the nightly accommodation charges for the time you are in the center. This center offers a variety of associated medical care for more complex cases and guidance will also be given about these charges if your treatment requires them.
Photographs from Munich Tourist Office, www.munchen.de
Photographs from Greek National Tourist Organisation, www.gnto.org
Photographs from Zurich Tourist Office, Switzerland Travel Center and Titlis Rotair
HCG is South Asia's largest cancer care provider with a nationwide network of centres.
The HCG CyberKnife Centre in Bangalore, India opened in February 2009 with 4G CyberKnife equipment as a stand-alone treatment or in conjunction with radiotherapy, using the Siemens Artiste™ image guided system. It has PET scanning and its own medical cyclotron facility, the only such facility in India, providing very high quality isotope production to meet US FDA and EU standards.
Most patients in Bangalore stay in the hospital and guest accommodation is also possible.
For Bangalore you will be sent a detailed initial cost estimate for CyberKnife and/or other treatments, along with projected treatment times when your case is reviewed by the centre.
In most cases there is no anaesthesia to recover from and you can usually resume normal activities immediately afterwards, but you might feel that you deserve a short break in the area, for peace of mind before flying home. Alternatively you might have to wait a few days for implanted fiducials to settle, before you can be treated. You are free to relax or explore and each location has much to offer.
And finally......
Photographs from www.karnataka.com, Bangalore Tourist Information
India offers unique attractions and Bangalore is no exception, with palaces and forts in the vicinity. The Bangalore CyberKnife centre offers assistance with visas, collection from the airport, accommodation can also arrange tours for patients or accompanying relatives.
In Lyon you can visit the Renaissance area and silk-weavers district, linger in a gourmet restaurant, take in an opera or exhibition or one of Lyon's famous light shows, indulge in some retail therapy or stroll along the River Saone, taking in the local craft markets.
Photographs from Lyon Tourist Office and RhônesAlpes Tourisme
For Lyon the price of a treatment of up to 5 fractions, whether with CyberKnife or Synergy®, which covers most treatments is fixed. If your treatment requires further fractions or additional ghospital services these are charged extra. Centre Léon-Bérard is a full service specialised oncology hospital so can provide wide ranging facilities as required.
In Lyon you will stay within the hospital for the duration of your treatment, but outside this period or while waiting for fiducials to settle youu can stay in a convenient hotel nearby.
© Alteriade vc
Centre Léon-Bérard in Lyon, France is a private, non-profit, hospital dedicated to cancer treatment and research with the latest CyberKnife VSI system, particularly advantageous for soft tissue tumours. It has a major paediatric department and treats more than 2,500 patients per year.
Other treatment techniques include extracranial stereotactic radiation therapy by linear accelerator, IMRT (intensity modulated radiotherapy), TBI (total body irradiation), respiratory gating radiotherapy and brachytherapy. In particular Centre Léon-Bérard has two Synergy® systems which, like CyberKnife, can offer a complete radiation treatment within one week in appropriate cases.
It treats most conditions in a single day, where many other CyberKnife centers treat over several days and recently pioneered a new treatment for cancer of the eye.
www.a1med.net
S P E C I A L I S T T R E A T M E N T S P A G E S
© PPM Consult Ltd . 2006-2011. All rights reserved
Important note to all patients
We provide enquiry forms or other contact details for the treatment or diagnotic centres featured and these centres will be pleased to answer your questions about services and costs.
PPM Consult Ltd. promotes selected clinics and certain specialities within individual hospitals inassociation with Medilux Healthcare Ltd. (MHL), where we believe the standards of care or medical equipment to be exceptional. We provide you with general information but we cannot advise or enter into correspondence about individual cases and we do not arrange or facilitate treatments. We shall not be responsible for the outcome of any treatment or failure to diagnose or treat and we recommend that all patients obtain professional medical advice on their proposed treatments.