How an obscure Chinese hospital became a beacon of hope for foreign cancer patients

When Filipino housewife Divina Gracia Meer was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer in April, her sister-in-law, a gynaecologist, advised her to seek treatment at a Guangzhou hospital.

Her suggestion was based on the experience of a friend, also a doctor, who had observed her own mother’s treatment at Guangzhou Fuda Cancer Hospital.

So Meer, who was living in the Philippine province of Batangas, contacted the Chinese facility’s representative office in Manila and four days later received a treatment plan and quote. She flew to Guangzhou with her husband in June, without receiving any treatment from Philippine hospitals.

In September, Meer was back at Fuda receiving her third cycle of treatment. Her overall condition is stable, but one of her 14 tumour cells is still active.

Over the past decade, this hospital, obscure in Guangzhou and largely unknown to local residents, has received more than 30,000 overseas patients, particularly those desperately seeking treatment for advanced cancers. They have been told by doctors in their own countries that there are no medical solutions for their diseases.

Compared with the number of wealthy Chinese who travel abroad to the United States or Japan for medical treatment, the number of foreign patients who visit mainland health centres is small.