Why Cancer Patients Fly to China for Treatment

More cancer patients are traveling to China for CAR-T therapy, driven largely by lower costs and faster scaling of manufacturing. While the U.S. pioneered CAR-T, China has become a global leader and, in June, became the first country to approve a CAR-T treatment for a solid tumor. In the U.S., CAR-T therapy is reported to cost $550,000 to $850,000, including related medical care; in China, treatment ranges from about $150,000 to $230,000, drawing international patients to Shanghai and other centers. China’s regulators approved satricabtagene autoleucel (satri-cel) for advanced stomach or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma that is CLDN18.2-positive and HER2-negative, after at least two prior treatment lines.