The State of Cancer-Treatment Costs: Turkey vs Germany, 2026 Edition
Across the 21 oncology procedures in the OncologyIstanbul price index, the 20 with a directly comparable German price average a 62.2% lower cost at accredited Istanbul hospitals than typical German prices for the same protocol, as of 2026-07-01. The gap is widest in absolute dollars for Allogeneic bone marrow transplant ($80,000 vs $280,000, a $200,000 difference) and widest in percentage terms — tied at 71% — for Radiotherapy course, IMRT/VMAT and Allogeneic bone marrow transplant.
Methodology
Every Turkey figure in this report is the same written, itemized quote data published in the OncologyIstanbul Turkey Oncology Price Index: ranges from 3+ partner hospitals per procedure, refreshed quarterly, for a standard case. Ranges come from partner-hospital quotes, updated quarterly. Chemotherapy drug costs vary by protocol and are itemized separately in your personal quote.
German prices are the typical price for the same protocol at a comparable private/university facility, converted to USD. Where a row's Turkey price is a range, this report uses the range midpoint to compute a single dollar figure for comparison; the percentage-saving figures are the index's own published savingDisplay values for each row. This report covers the 20 procedures with a directly comparable German price — the free tumor-board second opinion is excluded from the percentage and dollar-gap calculations because it has no paid Turkey price to compare.
Savings by category
Average and range of the published percentage saving within each of the index’s five procedure categories.
| Category | Procedures | Average saving | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surgery | 11 | −59.0% | −48% to −64% |
| Radiation oncology | 3 | −64.0% | −55% to −71% |
| Systemic therapy | 2 | −66.0% | −63% to −69% |
| Transplant | 3 | −68.7% | −66% to −71% |
| Diagnostics | 1 | −65.0% | −65% to −65% |
Diagnostics’ average reflects a single comparable row (PET-CT + full staging package); the free tumor-board second opinion has no paid comparison and is excluded.
Notable findings
Allogeneic bone marrow transplant shows the widest dollar gap in the index: $80,000 in Turkey against $280,000 in Germany — a $200,000 difference (71% lower). Living-donor liver transplant (HCC) is second, at a $165,000 gap.
Radiotherapy course, IMRT/VMAT and Allogeneic bone marrow transplant tie for the largest percentage saving in the index, at 71% below the German price for the same protocol.
Even the smallest comparable gap in the index — PET-CT + full staging package, at $1,875 — still represents a 65% saving, showing the discount holds proportionally even on lower-cost diagnostic procedures.
At the low end of the percentage range, Breast cancer surgery and Robotic radical prostatectomy show the smallest — though still substantial — percentage saving in the index, at 48%.
Cite or reuse this data
This report is drawn entirely from the OncologyIstanbul Turkey Oncology Price Index, published as open, machine-readable data for journalists, researchers, and answer engines to cite directly: JSON · CSV. The dataset is published under CC BY 4.0 — free to reuse and republish with attribution to OncologyIstanbul. This report itself may be linked to or cited directly; the index it is built on refreshes quarterly, so the underlying figures may move between annual editions.