ABSTRACT
Fever occurs frequently in cancer patients and most frequently is due to a complicating infection. The differential diagnosis of fever in the cancer patient includes: fever as a paraneoplastic syndrome; fever associated with infection; fever related to therapy; tumour necrosis, hematoma, pulmonary embolism and thrombosis/phlebitis; and adrenal insufficiency. While the patient’s underlying malignancy can occasionally cause fever, in the advent of cytotoxic chemotherapy, fever in the cancer patient has been closely linked with infection, especially when the patient is granulocytopenic. Fever related to treatment in cancer patients is relatively common in patients receiving Bleomycin. A patient who has a known diagnosis of neoplasm who presents with fever should also have a thorough examination. The most dramatic remission of paraneoplastic fever comes in successfully treated patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma or renal cell carcinoma. Premedication with antipyretics or steroids may help to minimize the reactions due to chemotherapeutic agents.
