Cancerous fever

Introduction Cancerous fever refers to cancer-related non-infectious fever that occurs in cancer patients with exclusion of infection and antibiotic treatment, and fever caused by treatment during tumor development. Cancer fever, even if it is high in heat, sometimes there is no abnormal test results. It is light and heavy when it is hot. It should exceed 37.8 °C at least once a day for more than a few weeks. Continuous high fever may occur with infection, and it will still disappear after infection is eliminated. Continued fever. Malignant tumors grow rapidly, and tissue necrosis due to ischemia and hypoxia can cause cancerous fever.

Cause

Modern medicine believes that cancerous fever is related to the following factors:

1 Malignant tumors grow rapidly, and the tissue is necrotic due to ischemia and hypoxia.

2 or due to treatment caused by massive destruction of tumor cells, release of tumor necrosis factor (TNF), leading to fever.

3 malignant tumor cells themselves may produce endogenous pyrogens, such as leukocyte infiltration in the tumor to cause inflammatory reactions, malignant tumor cells release antigenic substances to cause an immune response and fever.

4 tumor cells can secrete some active substances, such as carcinoid production of serotonin, pheochromocytoma to produce catecholamines, liver cancer cells to produce alpha-fetoprotein, and many tumor cells can produce ectopic hormones, etc., all have different kinds of body Reactions, some of which can cause fever.

5 In the treatment of cancer, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, application of interferon, interleukin II, tumor necrosis factor, colony stimulating factor, tumor vaccine and other preparations can also cause fever.

an examination

Cancer fever, even if it is high in heat, there is no abnormal test result, and the fever lasts for a long time. When it is hot, it is light and heavy. At least once a day, it exceeds 37.8 °C, and the duration can reach several weeks. With infection, continuous high fever can occur, and the infection will continue to heat up after the infection is eliminated.

First, physical examination

Taking a medical history gives us a first impression and revelation, and also guides us to a concept of the nature of the disease.

Second, laboratory inspection

Laboratory examinations must be summarized and analyzed based on objective data learned from medical history and physical examination, from which several diagnostic possibilities may be proposed, and further consideration should be given to those examinations to confirm the diagnosis.

Differential diagnosis

First, it is cancer fever, even if it is high fever, sometimes there is no special test results, and the fever of most diseases is accompanied by elevated white blood cells and accelerated erythrocyte sedimentation rate.

Second, cancer fever does not feel cold, but it will feel very hot. Body temperature is generally between 37.5-38 degrees Celsius.

Third, the application of antibiotics and anti-allergic drugs in cancer fever has no obvious effect, but can be antipyretic after application of anti-cancer drugs.

Fourth, in many cases, cancer fever is often the first symptom, and then tumor enlargement occurs. Therefore, if you do not have a fever for a while, you should go to the hospital for diagnosis and identification in time to find out the real cause.

The material in this site is intended to be of general informational use and is not intended to constitute medical advice, probable diagnosis, or recommended treatments.