# Americans are flying to Shanghai for cancer care

> A cutting-edge cancer therapy invented in the US now costs a third as much in China, and patients are booking flights.
- Title: Americans are flying to Shanghai for cancer care · Futurism
- Summary: A cutting-edge cancer therapy invented in the US now costs a third as much in China, and patients are booking flights. CAR-T was invented in the US, but…
- Keywords: healthcare, cancer, medical tourism, china, car-t, science, technology, Americans, flying, Shanghai, care, Futurism
- Source: Futurism — https://futurism.com/health-medicine/usa-health-care-system-medical-tourism-cancer-therapy-china
- Author: Joe Wilkins
- Published: 2026-09-13T14:01:00+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: healthcare, cancer, medical tourism, china, car-t, science, technology
## Medical tourism, again
Americans have long left the richest country on Earth to afford care, heading to Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada, Turkey and Thailand. Shanghai is the newest stop.
## The treatment in question
CAR-T therapy re-engineers a patient's own white blood cells to hunt down proteins on cancer cells. It is personalised immunotherapy, built one patient at a time.
## Invented here, scaled there
US biotech giants developed CAR-T, then could not or would not bring the price down or make enough of it. Shortages spread across the country.
## A third of the price
In China the therapy runs about $150,000 to $230,000. In the US it is $550,000 to $850,000. One bill is life-altering, the other is impossible.

> China has basically done to CAR-T cell therapy the same thing that it's done to other industries, which is, they've industrialized it.
## Doctors are saying go
Sairah Ahmed, who runs the CAR-T program at MD Anderson in Houston, tells some of her patients to seek treatment in China. Labs near Shanghai turn it around in days, not the three-plus weeks US labs need.
## Not a miracle cure
CAR-T only works on some cancers and usually comes after other treatments fail. Recovery takes months of checkups with physical, neurological and psychological specialists.
## Key takeaway

CAR-T was invented in the US, but China industrialised it, so American patients are getting on planes to afford it.