The regional disparity in the proportion of liver cancer patients waiting more than a month for surgery after diagnosis has widened to its largest gap in the past five years, according to data analysis.

On the 6th, Representative Heo Jong-sik of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Health and Welfare Committee, released the results of an analysis of data obtained from the National Health Insurance Service and the National Cancer Center.

In 2025, the proportion of liver cancer patients who waited 31 days or more from diagnosis to their first surgery was 19.4% in the capital area and 28.4% in non-capital regions. The gap stood at 9.0 percentage points, marking the largest difference over the five-year period since 2021 (4.7 percentage points).

Compared to 2024, the capital area saw a 7.3 percentage-point drop from 26.7% to 19.4%, whereas non-capital regions saw a modest 4.0 percentage-point decline from 32.4% to 28.4%.

Although both regions improved, the smaller improvement rate in non-capital areas widened the gap from 5.7 percentage points to 9.0 percentage points.

Gastric and colorectal cancers showed similar trends. Across all years from 2021 to 2025, the proportion of patients waiting 31 days or more was higher in non-capital regions than in the capital area for all three types of cancer. The 2025 gaps were 5.5 percentage points for colorectal cancer (20.9% in the capital vs. 26.4% in non-capital regions) and 5.2 percentage points for gastric cancer (26.3% vs. 31.5%).

Surgery timing is directly tied to treatment outcomes, leading the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service to use the "proportion of cancer patients operated on within 30 days of confirmed diagnosis" as an indicator for cancer adequacy evaluations.

According to the National Cancer Center, patients who underwent surgery after 30 days faced a 5-year mortality risk 1.22 times higher for liver cancer and 1.15 times higher for colorectal cancer.

Surgeries at Regional Cancer Centers Drop by 28% in Four Years; Seoul "Expedition Treatment" Persists

Amidst these circumstances, the role of regional cancer centers—established to ensure that patients diagnosed locally receive surgeries locally—has reportedly diminished.

Top-10 cancer surgeries across the country's 13 regional cancer centers plummeted by 28.0%, falling from 19,566 cases in 2021 to 14,078 cases in 2025. The proportion of local patients who received surgery at their regional cancer center also declined from 18.3% to 15.7%.

Patient concentration in Seoul remains persistent. As of 2023, cancer patients residing in Seoul accounted for 18.4% of the total, but 47.9% of all cancer patients had experience receiving medical treatment at Seoul medical institutions—roughly 2.6 times the number of local residents.

In 2025, the self-sufficiency rate for top-10 cancer surgeries reached 93.3% in Seoul compared to 56.3% outside Seoul, showing a massive gap of 37 percentage points. Notably, South Jeolla Province (Jeollanam-do) experienced a sharp drop from 48.3% in 2021 to 36.7% in 2025.

National Budget for Cancer Management Frozen for 3 Years; Zero Equipment Funds for 5 Years

Government support remains vastly inadequate in the face of these challenges. According to the National Cancer Center, the national budget for regional-specific cancer management programs across the 13 regional cancer centers has been frozen at 100 million won per center annually for three consecutive years since 2024.

Dedicated staff per center generally hover around 8 to 10 individuals, barely meeting the Ministry of Health and Welfare's notification standard (8 or more).

National budget support for equipment in existing regional cancer centers had been suspended for about a decade before resuming in 2025, limited to only three facilities per year.

Following Dankook University Hospital, which was newly designated in 2023 and received support in 2024, Gachon University Gil Medical Center, Chilgok Kyungpook National University Hospital, and Jeonbuk National University Hospital received equipment funding in 2025, while Ajou University Hospital, Ulsan University Hospital, and Jeju National University Hospital received it in 2026.

Meanwhile, six other centers—Hwasun Chonnam National University Hospital, Gyeongsang National University Hospital, Pusan National University Hospital, Chungnam National University Hospital, Kangwon National University Hospital, and Chungbuk National University Hospital—have not received equipment funding even once over the past five years.

While the government's policy aims to foster national university hospitals as the backbone of regional essential medical care, four of the 13 regional cancer centers—Gachon University Gil Medical Center in Incheon, Ajou University Hospital in Gyeonggi, Ulsan University Hospital, and Dankook University Hospital in Chungnam—are private university hospitals.

Rep. Heo Jong-sik pointed out that under the government's "national university hospital-centric" fostering framework, regional cancer centers performing public duties could be marginalized from policy support simply because they are located in the capital region or are private hospitals.

"For cancer patients, the waiting time for surgery is a golden hour directly tied to life. Widening disparities in surgical wait times based on residential location constitutes clear medical inequality," Rep. Heo stressed.

He added, "Regardless of whether they are established as national or private entities, we must strengthen the facilities, equipment, and professional workforce of all regional cancer centers to curb Seoul-bound expedition treatments and complete a self-sufficient regional cancer care system."

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