What causes shortness of breath in a vaginal cancer patient?
Patient: hello my wife has small cell primary vaginal cancer, advanced grade 3. she has sever shortness of breath edema in legs some memory problems she is on oxygen all the time. her hands and leg neck mouth area are red/blue. she get a coldness that she feels throught her body(deep chills0 she sleeps more about 12 hours a day sometimes more. Noone can tell me what to expect in the short run. Is she close to her time ? Thank you for your help Doctor: Thanks for your question on HCM. I can understand your wife's situation and problem. Small cell tumours of any organ are very notorious for distal organ spread. They are known to involve lung, liver, bones and brain. So possibility of lung metastasis as a cause for her breathlessness is high. Vaginal cancer tend to cause pelvic lymphnode involvement and lymphatic obstruction. So bilateral lower limb edema can be due to this. Brain metastasis can cause memory disturbance. So all her symptoms favour possibility of distal organ metastasis. And this is not good sign for prognosis. Sorry to say but she is having end stage cancer with life expectancy is less than 1 year.