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Interpreters for Oncology and Cancer Care

Cancer care is a diagnosis, a treatment plan, consent forms, weeks of infusions or radiation and the side effects in between, usually with the same team. Here is who has to provide the interpreter, why a son or daughter should not deliver the diagnosis, and how oncology practices and patients book one with us.

Cancer centers that take federal health funds provide the interpreter, free

If your cancer center, hospital or oncology practice receives federal financial assistance from HHS — Medicare and Medicaid are on HHS's list (45 CFR Part 80, App. A) — it must offer a qualified interpreter at no charge, and it may not require you to bring or pay for your own (45 CFR 92.201(b), (c)(1), (e)(1)). That holds at every step, from the diagnosis to the last follow-up scan. The National Cancer Institute's guidance for clinicians says the same in practice: professional interpreters at each step of the visit, at no cost to the patient, and not family members or friends (NCI, Communication in Cancer Care (PDQ)).

A practice that receives no HHS financial assistance is outside the federal rule (45 CFR 92.2), though state law may apply. Who books us, then. Oncology practices and cancer centers, when their usual service is by phone and they want an interpreter in the room for a diagnosis or a consent — NCI notes that in-person interpreters are preferable for bad news and chemotherapy consent (NCI PDQ) — or for a language they cannot cover. Practices outside the rule, and patients seeing one for a second opinion.

Why family should not interpret a cancer diagnosis

NCI gives the reason plainly: family members and friends may not communicate all the information accurately, and may be uncomfortable communicating emotionally difficult information (NCI PDQ). A daughter told that her father's cancer has spread will soften it, leave out the numbers, or decide he should not hear it yet. Nobody in the room can tell. And the family needs to be in the meeting as family — asking their own questions, holding the patient's hand — not as the conduit.

Some families ask the interpreter not to say the word "cancer," or not to translate the prognosis. A qualified interpreter cannot do that: the rule defines one as interpreting without changes, omissions or additions (45 CFR 92.4). What respects a patient who does not want every number is for the oncologist to ask the patient first, through the interpreter, how much they want to know and who else should hear it — the approach NCI summarizes for discussing a diagnosis begins by assessing the patient's and family's preferences for information (NCI PDQ). That decision belongs to the patient and the clinician, not to the interpreter or the family.

The conversations along a treatment course

• Diagnosis and staging. The pathology result, the stage, what the scans show, and what the treatment goal is — cure, control or comfort. The interpreter renders the oncologist's own words, including the uncertainty.
• The treatment plan. Surgery, chemotherapy in cycles, radiation in daily sessions, immunotherapy or hormone therapy: what happens when, and for how long.
• Chemotherapy consent and teaching. Risks, side effects and the warning signs the team says require a call; for oral chemotherapy, the days on and off and the dose. Numbers are repeated exactly and written down.
• Infusion and radiation visits. Most of an infusion chair or a radiation session needs no interpreter; the check-in, the side-effect review and any change in plan do.
• A clinical trial offer. Research consent has its own rules: see interpreters for clinical trials and informed consent.
• When treatment stops working. Goals of care, palliative care and hospice: see hospital family meetings and hospice and end-of-life care.

Running an oncology visit through an interpreter

NCI's own strategies for clinicians are the right ones (NCI PDQ): introduce yourself to the interpreter before the visit and preview what you plan to say; seat the interpreter next to or slightly behind the patient; speak directly to the patient or family member, never about the patient in the third person; and use simple, brief phrases without jargon. For a diagnosis, that preview matters most — the interpreter who knows bad news is coming can render it at the pace the oncologist sets rather than catching up.

After the news, pause. The interpreter renders silence and emotion too, and the patient's first questions are often not medical. End with the next step said back by the patient — the next appointment, the test, the phone number to call. Over a treatment course, the same interpreter helps; ask for it, and we will tell you before you book whether we can staff it.

Booking across a treatment course

Book the conversations, not the whole treatment day. A diagnosis consultation in person is $110 an hour with a two-hour minimum — $220 plus travel at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, confirmed before you book. Chemotherapy teaching followed by the first hour of the first infusion, 8 to 11 a.m., is three hours, $330 plus travel. Check-ins at later cycles usually work by video or phone: $80 for the first hour. A full day at a multidisciplinary clinic, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., is eight hours, $880 plus travel, and may need two interpreters in relay.

Send the type of visit, the clinic or cancer center, the date and expected length, the language and dialect, who will attend, and whether a consent form will be signed. Pathology reports, scans and treatment records from another country, for a second opinion here, are written translation, quoted per page: medical records translation.

By video, by phone or in person

Virtual interpreting runs on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, or over the telephone. It is quicker to arrange, costs less and carries no travel charge, and it suits appointments, calls and most meetings.

In person is what venues with their own rules tend to expect, and the right choice when documents are being signed or several people are speaking at once. Tell us the platform, or the city and the venue, when you send the request.

Languages

The standard-availability languages are: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Polish, Italian, German, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Tagalog, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Serbian, Bosnian, Somali and Nepali. Every other language we offer carries the 25–30% limited-availability rate. If a language is not on that list it is not because we cannot do it — it is because the pool of qualified interpreters in the United States is small enough that we will not promise a date without checking.

Each language has its own page on what to watch for — dialects, names, dates, who the speakers usually are: see interpreters by language.

What it costs

Rates are per interpreter, per hour, and billed from the scheduled start time rather than from when everyone actually arrives.

• Virtual — $80 per hour, one-hour minimum. Zoom, Google Meet, Teams or telephone.
• In person — $110 per hour, two-hour minimum.
• Limited-availability languages — add 25–30%. Which languages those are is listed below rather than left vague.
• Travel for in-person work — $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location.

How the travel charge works out

Travel is charged at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, which means you can work it out rather than wait for a quote: a 20-mile round trip is $14, a 60-mile round trip is $42, a 150-mile round trip is $105. There is no separate call-out fee on top.

We will not pretend to know in advance where the interpreter will be coming from — that depends on the language, the date and the venue. What we do is confirm the interpreter and the exact travel figure before you book, so it is never a surprise on the invoice. Virtual assignments carry no travel charge at all, which is one reason most of what we do is virtual.

How booking an interpreter works

• You send the request with the form below: the language, the setting, the format, the date and how long it should last.
• We confirm before you commit: the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one. We reply the same business day, and no payment is taken at this stage.
• You confirm, and the interpreter is booked for your date.

What to have ready

The more of this comes in the first message, the fewer exchanges before you have a price:

• The language, the date, the start time and how long it should run.
• Virtual or in person: the platform, or the city and the venue.
• The setting and the subject matter.
• How many people need interpreting for.
• Any credential the venue requires of the interpreter.

Request an interpreter

Tell us the date, the language and the setting and we will come back with the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one — before you commit to anything.

Sources

What this page says about the rules was checked against these official sources on October 28, 2026. Rules change; the source is always the authority.

• 45 CFR 92.201 — Section 1557: Meaningful access for individuals with limited English proficiency (eCFR; rule of May 6, 2024)
• 45 CFR 92.4 — Section 1557 definitions: qualified interpreter (eCFR)
• 45 CFR 92.2 — Section 1557: Application to health programs receiving HHS financial assistance (eCFR)
• 45 CFR Part 80, Appendix A — HHS federal financial assistance, including Medicare Parts A and B and Medicaid (eCFR)
• National Cancer Institute — Communication in Cancer Care (PDQ), Health Professional Version: Language and the use of interpreters (updated May 12, 2025)

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