What stands out
- Shanghai SPHIC, China's first proton-plus-carbon-ion centre (2015), had treated 5,400+ patients by April 2023
- Flat, published pricing: ¥278,000 radiotherapy fee per course at SPHIC, roughly ¥330,000 all-in
- A national build-out: from five operating particle centres in 2022 toward ten, including domestically built carbon-ion systems
Why people watch this space
Proton and carbon-ion (“heavy-ion”) therapy are forms of radiotherapy whose beams stop in the tumour instead of passing through healthy tissue — physics that matters most for tumours near critical structures, in children, and in radioresistant cancers. In the United States the technology is constrained less by evidence than by cost and coverage: insurers remain hesitant to authorise it outside approved indications. China took a different route — it built centres and published flat prices. This page lays out what exists and what it costs, with sources. It is not treatment advice: eligibility is decided by a centre’s tumour board, not by the patient.
What China has built
The Shanghai Proton and Heavy Ion Center (SPHIC) opened in May 2015 as China’s first hospital dedicated to particle therapy, treating with both protons and carbon ions; it had treated 5,400 patients by April 2023. A peer-reviewed 2022 review counted five operating particle centres nationwide at that point; since then the Wuwei and Lanzhou heavy-ion centres — home of China’s first domestically developed carbon-ion system, treating since 2020 — have been joined by newer proton centres, and PTCOG tracks roughly 49 proton projects built, under construction or announced. Industry trackers put the count of operating centres near ten by 2025, with Wuhan’s Tongji Hospital proton centre starting treatments in December 2024. Treat the exact count as a moving target; the direction is not.
The prices, sourced
- SPHIC (Shanghai), official: the radiotherapy fee is ¥278,000 for a single-course treatment — roughly US$39,000 — a flat rate set out on the hospital’s own FAQ page. Real all-in cost runs higher: with admission, imaging and nursing, Chinese media report average total spending around ¥330,000 (Jiefang Daily).
- Elsewhere in China: a December 2024 industry survey of published charges lists Ruijin (Shanghai) proton at ¥170,000, Guangzhou Concord Cancer Center at ¥295,000, most other centres ¥260,000–270,000, and one Zhejiang heavy-ion centre capped at ¥198,000 — roughly US$24,000–41,000 per course across the country.
- United States: full-course proton therapy is typically billed at $100,000–200,000; one US centre quotes $25,000 to over $100,000 depending on the plan, and a billing study found median per-session charges of about $4,700–6,700. What a patient actually pays depends on insurance: Medicare covers broadly, private insurers require authorisation and often decline off-indication use.
How access actually works
Particle therapy is prescribed, not requested: centres accept defined indications — skull-base and head-and-neck tumours, prostate, paediatric solid tumours, and radioresistant tumours for carbon ion — and every case passes a multi-disciplinary eligibility review before a slot is offered. International patients self-pay: foreign insurers almost never fund planned radiotherapy abroad (why), so the honest budget is the full package plus travel. A course means daily sessions over several weeks, not a short trip — visa planning (guide) and payment logistics (guide) matter as much as the treatment decision. For the drug side of Chinese oncology — CAR-T and cell therapies — see our advanced oncology & cell therapy page; the two are often discussed together but are entirely different treatment classes.
Read the numbers carefully
- The flat fee covers the radiotherapy course, not the workup — and if the tumour board judges a case ineligible after you have travelled and paid for tests, that spend is sunk.
- China’s newer centres have short track records; centre age, treated volume and indication mix are fair questions to ask any of them, including SPHIC.
- Carbon-ion and proton evidence bases differ, and by indication; “particle therapy” is not one homogeneous thing.
- Radiotherapy is one phase of cancer care. Follow-up oncology back home has to be arranged in advance, and home-country doctors will reasonably want the full treatment records.
- Comparable-hospital context is in our hospital guide; how the wider system treats foreign patients is visible in the video library.
The honest summary: a therapy class that lists at $100,000–200,000 in the United States is available in China at a published flat rate around a quarter of that, in a system that has been scaling it since 2015. Whether particle therapy is medically right for any individual tumour is a question this site does not answer.