> If I die at 75 does it matter if my cancer is detected when I'm 68 vs 73?
Yes, it matters in both directions.
One way is that the cancer might cause you to suffer in other ways, e.g. by metabolizing all of your food, causing you to lose large amounts of weight. If this is addressable (not at all a sure thing!), then knowing earlier is probably better.
The other way is that you might not be suffering. In that case, given that your death is fixed, knowing earlier is obviously worse.
I've never seen someone die of cancer without being treated beforehand. I understand it's a horrible, painful death. That said, the treatments we apply to someone dying of cancer also make for a horrible, painful death; there definitely is a point at which the treatment is worse than the cancer.
Another wrinkle is that treatment may give you a few horrible months, then a few not-so-bad-years before your cancer comes back, and then the horribleness resumes. Those years in the middle are worth something, even if the time at which you die is fixed.
If we ignore brief-to-medium remissions, and the hypothetical patient's time of death is fixed, then the obvious recommendation is to avoid all treatment and commit suicide when your quality of life drops too low. But the uncertainty we have in reality makes that difficult.
Yes, it matters in both directions.
One way is that the cancer might cause you to suffer in other ways, e.g. by metabolizing all of your food, causing you to lose large amounts of weight. If this is addressable (not at all a sure thing!), then knowing earlier is probably better.
The other way is that you might not be suffering. In that case, given that your death is fixed, knowing earlier is obviously worse.
I've never seen someone die of cancer without being treated beforehand. I understand it's a horrible, painful death. That said, the treatments we apply to someone dying of cancer also make for a horrible, painful death; there definitely is a point at which the treatment is worse than the cancer.
Another wrinkle is that treatment may give you a few horrible months, then a few not-so-bad-years before your cancer comes back, and then the horribleness resumes. Those years in the middle are worth something, even if the time at which you die is fixed.
If we ignore brief-to-medium remissions, and the hypothetical patient's time of death is fixed, then the obvious recommendation is to avoid all treatment and commit suicide when your quality of life drops too low. But the uncertainty we have in reality makes that difficult.