Dry Skin in Stage IV NHL?

[westieluv]

As a hospice triage nurse, I recently received a call from a patient's wife. The patient had stage IV NHL, B Cell variety. It was an aggresive type and after he relapsed, according to his wife, he was not able to do chemo or radiation again, hence the hospice admission and no treatment at all.

So, according to the patient's wife, he has, in a rather short period of time, developed rough, dry skin over his entire body head to toe, and she was asking if this was normal with this disease process. I honestly could not tell her, and I would normally consider that it may be a side effect of his treatment, except that he has not been treated since relapsing earlier this year and is not on any other new meds per his EMR.

Is this something that you see often in late stage NHL patients? Is it a side effect of the cancer progressing? I googled it but I could only find one article that suggested that is a result of the cancer spreading and producing histamines that attack the skin, but I'm not sure if this is accurate.

I felt badly because I really could not explain to the wife, just let her know that I would leave a message in shift report for the RNCM to follow up the next day because he was not symptomatic (itchy, painful, etc.), just very rough and dry and he had never had this before.