For people with cancer, why can’t doctors just remove the affected body part(s) (with the exception of the brain, spine, and lungs, maybe)?

Question

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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Answer 1

A lot of the time they do. That’s what a mastectomy is, for example, and it’s not uncommon to lose a limb.

But as you imply, you can’t remove vital organs unless there’s a viable replacement, which is not always the case.

Additionally…. honestly, once you have cancer you’re pretty much at high risk for more cancer, even different types. So you’re at high risk for organ replacement (we don’t really have a surplus of organ donations).