I’ve got a grandpa in the hospital for bladder cancer (benign, fortunately) and I’m wondering why they can’t just remove his bladder and put in a nee one or an artificial one.
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1) There are many organs other than what you listed that are necessary for life.
2) Not all of them have artificial replacements. And artificial replacements don’t work as well, generally speaking. So there is degradation and ultimately failure.
3) Not all organs are transplantable. Even then, transplants require extensive, life long treatment and monitoring. Not easy if the patient is older who might not survive the major surgery or the recovery period.
4) Cancer spreads. If the cancer is caught early enough, then it might be possible to excise the cancer and with some additional treatment, there might be a reasonable recovery. This is quite commonly done. Unfortunately, many cancers are difficult to detect early and by the time it is detected it might have already spread and can no longer be simply removed.
5) Quality of life. This is a tough one. Major surgical and medical intervention for cancer is painful, difficult and tough on the patient. There is no guarantee of success. Especially for much older people, the decision might be that the price to be paid in terms of pain and suffering of the treatment and the low probability of any success means nothing can really be done. (There is a lot of data that indicates that aggressive treatments for some cancers might only extend life for a few years – much of it in pain and in the hospital)
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