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What Causes Sudden Variations In The Body Temperature With Bone Cancer?
good day doc. My sister has bone cancer on her pelvis and on one of her left rib. She was discharged from the hospital two days ago with pain management medications prescribed by her physician. She had slightly low hemoglobin and WBC in her CBC while she was confined in the hospital. Now she has manifested fever which rapidly rises to 40.5 Celsius and rapidly drops back to normal after 30 minutes after giving her paracetamol. What could be the possible cause in this sudden rise and fall of her temperature? She had two episodes already. Could this be related to her cancer advancing or due to an infection? Thank you.
Mon, 9 Mar 2015
Hello dear, thanks for your question on HCM.
I can understand your sister's situation and problem.
Cancer patients are at great risk of infection because of poor immunity.
So causes of on-off fever in cancer patient are
1. Infection
2. Release of chemical substance (cytokines and pyrogens) from the tumour.
If Infection has been ruled out then tumour itself can cause fever by releasing cytokines and pyrogens from tumour mass.
So give hwr paracetamol whenever she is having fever.
No need to worry as this is normal in cancer, but better to rule out infection first.
I can understand your sister's situation and problem.
Cancer patients are at great risk of infection because of poor immunity.
So causes of on-off fever in cancer patient are
1. Infection
2. Release of chemical substance (cytokines and pyrogens) from the tumour.
If Infection has been ruled out then tumour itself can cause fever by releasing cytokines and pyrogens from tumour mass.
So give hwr paracetamol whenever she is having fever.
No need to worry as this is normal in cancer, but better to rule out infection first.
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