Why do liver cancer patients have fever

Some liver cancer patients will have fever symptoms, mostly with low to moderate fever, body temperature around 37℃～38℃, and more obvious in the afternoon. A few patients' body temperature can even reach 39℃, but generally not accompanied by chills. Cancer fever or infection may cause fever symptoms in liver cancer patients.

Cancer fever

Most liver cancer patients do not have an increase in white blood cells when undergoing blood tests. However, if blood cultures cannot detect bacteria and antibacterial treatment cannot relieve the fever, then the fever is caused by liver cancer, which is clinically called cancer fever.

Cancer fever is caused by pyrogens released by non-infectious inflammation or tumor necrosis in tumor tissue. It is generally not easy to control, but if the cancer is effectively treated, the tumor will shrink and the fever symptoms will also be relieved. Therefore, cancer fever means that liver cancer develops rapidly and most of them have a poor prognosis. Fever caused by liver cancer is mostly cancer fever. Clinically, it is generally treated with non-steroidal drugs combined with anti-tumor treatment to relieve fever.

Infect

On the other hand, liver cancer patients have low resistance and are prone to concurrent infection. The fever at this time is infectious. For example, liver cancer patients are prone to spontaneous peritonitis, the main manifestations of which are fever, abdominal pain, and a significant increase in ascites. Generally speaking, fever caused by infection will show an increase in white blood cells in blood tests, and ascites examination will find that the ascites is turbid, with many white blood cells in the ascites, and bacteria can be cultured.

Therefore, if liver cancer patients develop a fever, they should combine their medical history and pay attention to distinguish whether the fever is caused by cancer itself or by infection. If it is caused by infection, the infected lesions should be found in time and anti-infection treatment should be actively given.