Cancer second opinions and treatment in India, from the UK

The first step is a written opinion, not a plane ticket

A structured review of the records you already hold is the most useful thing you can buy at this stage, and the least disruptive to anything already under way. A specialist reads the histology, the staging imaging and what has been advised, then sets out the options as they see them, including the option of doing precisely what your team at home has proposed, including non-surgical routes, and including the case for not operating. The written opinion is addressed to you and is meant to be shared with the oncologist treating you, not to displace them: it is a review of the records provided, never a treatment order, and no decision to start, stop or change treatment should be taken except with a registered doctor who has examined you. The fee is $50 for a video consultation, or $150 if you want the opinion set down in a document, and each is credited in full against the next step. Very often the outcome is reassurance about a plan already in place, and that is a legitimate result to pay for.

What a reviewer needs from your UK records, and what takes time to get

The histopathology report is the document everything else hangs from, followed by the staging scans, the letter setting out what has been advised, and the summary of the multidisciplinary meeting if you have been given one. Copies of your own records are yours to request, and the week you decide to seek an opinion is the week to ask for them. Imaging is far more useful as the scan files themselves, on disc or through a secure download, than as the radiologist's report by itself. That request goes to a radiology or records department working to its own timescales, not to us. If a reviewing specialist wants the pathology slides or blocks themselves rather than the written report, that is a request to the laboratory holding them, and their release policy governs what happens, not our preferences. Records requests are a common reason a case takes weeks longer than it needed to, and they are the one part of it you can start today.

A cancer quote is a treatment plan with prices attached, not one number

Nobody can hand you a single figure for treating cancer, and anyone who tries is selling something. What an itemized quote can do is show you the shape of the money: the surgery if surgery is planned, each cycle of systemic treatment priced per cycle, the imaging between cycles, the supportive medicines, the hospital days, and the tests that decide whether the plan changes at all. Ask explicitly what would move the total (a finding at operation, a change of drug, a longer admission), and ask for the exclusions in writing. Because so much of a cancer plan is contingent, an honest quote reads as a set of scenarios rather than a price tag. Payment for treatment goes from you straight to the hospital, and our facilitation fee sits on an invoice of its own, a flat published figure that does not move whichever scenario your treatment turns out to follow. Assume too that you are self-funding, since cover for planned treatment in India is not something UK private policies generally provide. Read your own wording before building a budget on it.

Treatment that runs in cycles, and the visa you are travelling on

This is the collision most people do not see coming: cancer treatment is measured in cycles and weeks, while visas are measured in validity and entries. British citizens apply online for the e-Medical visa, which the official portal currently lists with one-year validity and multiple entries. Those terms have changed before, so confirm the current conditions on the portal itself when you apply. The tighter constraint is usually the person travelling with you: the linked attendant visas run 60 days, which is shorter than some courses of treatment, and extending a stay in India is done through the FRRO on the authorities' terms. Confirm the current rules with the official source rather than relying on any summary, including this one. OCI cardholders sidestep the whole question, needing no medical visa for any length of stay. The advantage this corridor does have is flights: London–Delhi nonstops run daily, and Mumbai and Bengaluru are reachable from London without a change of plane either, so flying home between cycles and coming back is a realistic plan rather than a theoretical one, and we schedule around that instead of assuming one long stay.

Who picks up your care when you land back in the UK

Agree this with your home team before you go, not after you return. Whether a clinician here will take over a treatment plan begun abroad is their decision, it varies between individuals and trusts, and neither we nor any Indian hospital can commit them to anything, which is why the conversation belongs at the beginning. What we can do is make the handover easy to accept: complete records, the pathology and operative notes, the drugs and doses given with their dates, the imaging, and a written follow-up plan intended to be read by a doctor in the UK, alongside a discharge bill audited against the quote that was agreed. Teleconsult follow-ups with the treating specialist remain available from home, and a written opinion can be revisited later if your situation changes. Ask your home team what they would want to see in order to resume care, and we will make sure that is the file you come back with.

What to prepare

• The full histopathology report, including the exact cancer type and any receptor or molecular test results
• Staging scans as the image files themselves, on disc or by secure download, and not the report alone
• The letter setting out what your team has advised, and the multidisciplinary meeting summary if you have one
• A dated list of treatment already given (drugs, doses, cycles completed), and everything currently prescribed
• An early request to the laboratory asking what pathology material it can release, and how long that takes
• A short written note of what you want the review to resolve: the choice in front of you, and what would change your mind