Although oncology is advancing rapidly, cancer treatment outcomes vary widely from country to country. This disparity continues to widen as new, more effective but high-tech and expensive treatments become available. If you want to take advantage of innovations in oncology, cure cancer, or get this disease under control, you should go to Germany. It is one of the best countries in the world for effective cancer treatment.
What are the reasons for Germany’s high achievements in the field of oncology?
Cancer treatment in Germany is more effective than in most other countries in the world. Why? We could go on and on about the reasons, but in the end it all comes down to funding. In Germany, 12.7% of GDP is spent on health care. That’s more than any other country in Europe. It’s the second highest number in the world after the US.
This spending looks even more impressive when you consider that Germany’s GDP is the fourth highest in the world, and it far exceeds any of the countries in Europe, including the UK and France.
Due to the good funding of medicine, the top oncology hospitals in Germany can afford to use advanced cancer treatments, state-of-the-art equipment, high-quality drugs and consumables.
Oncology is the most funding-sensitive area of medicine. Cancer treatment is expensive, especially at the advanced stage. High-quality advanced equipment is required for radiation therapy, surgeries, high-tech interventional procedures, cellular and other technologies. Therefore, oncology has a high level of development only in those countries that can afford high healthcare expenditures.
Advantages of cancer treatment in Germany
The use of advanced cancer treatments in Germany allows doctors not only to achieve better cancer outcomes, but also to make treatment safer and less traumatic. Patients recover faster and are less likely to suffer from a deterioration in their quality of life after successful cancer treatment.
In every area of oncology, Germany is several steps ahead of most countries. We will explain this advantage with one example.
The main treatment for prostate cancer is prostatectomy, which involves the removal of the prostate gland. Prostatectomy has the same name in every country in the world. Therefore, it seems to patients that it will also be done in the same way. But in fact there are differences, and they are significant, for example:
- Most countries in the world still perform open prostatectomy through large incisions, while Germany mainly performs minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery
- Advanced clinics in Germany are performing even safer robot-assisted prostatectomies
- After prostate removal in a country with a low level of medicine, most patients suffer from erectile dysfunction, while Germany uses a nerve-saving technique that preserves erectile function
- Special techniques (radioisotope lymphoscintigraphy, fluorescence navigation) are used in Germany to visualize the boundaries of the tumor and remove it completely, as well as to perform dissection of all sentinel lymph nodes.
- Advanced clinics use PSMA-targeted radionavigation, which is an injection of a drug that selectively accumulates in cancer cells to identify lymph nodes affected by metastases
The bottom line is that prostatectomy in Germany is more successful, especially in advanced stages, safer, less traumatic and has fewer complications.
A similar list of benefits and innovations can be drawn up for almost any procedure, for any cancer. This is why there are numerous patient success stories of those who receive care in German clinics.
You can rest assured that even though the treatment methods have the same name, they are applied differently in practice. You get a lot of health benefits if you are treated for cancer in Germany.
The best cancer clinics
The best are University Hospitals, which are medical institutions of maximum care. They receive the latest equipment, quickly implement innovative treatments and conduct their own research.
Examples are Charité University Hospital Berlin, Ludwig-Maximilian University Hospital of Munich, University Hospital Frankfurt am Main.
There are many other good oncology hospitals in Germany. When choosing a clinic, you should consider its specialization and the procedures available. For example, for proton therapy you should go to the University Hospital Heidelberg or Essen. Cyberknife is available at the Charité Clinic in Berlin, and irreversible electroporation for prostate cancer is performed at the Vitus Clinic for Innovative Cancer Treatment.
How to choose a suitable clinic
No single hospital in Germany is the best for treating all cancers, at all stages, by all methods. Each major hospital has a specific area of clinical interest in which it is one of the best. Many procedures require specialized equipment that is not available everywhere.
Therefore, if you are considering cancer treatment abroad, you should not choose a clinic on your own. Use the services of Booking Health. We have been engaged in medical tourism in Germany for many years, and we know very well what diseases, by what methods, with what results are treated in different hospitals. Leave an application on our website. We will not only help you choose the best clinic for cancer care abroad, depending on your diagnosis, but also organize your trip.