The fever in patients with advanced liver cancer is mostly cancer fever, which is caused by the release of pyrogen into the blood circulation after the necrosis of tumor tissue; some patients also have fever due to infection, which causes fever. The two kinds of fever are very easy to confuse, and we need to combine the results of blood picture, chest X-ray, and blood culture, and observe whether antibacterial treatment is effective to determine.
Because of the immunity of the organism in patients with advanced tumors, they are very susceptible to infection. If the infection is caused by infection we can reduce the temperature to normal by anti-infection plus symptomatic treatment, and when the infection is controlled, the temperature will return to normal.
If the patient has unexplained fever, blood picture and lung x-ray are not abnormal, and anti-infective treatment is not effective, we have to consider whether it is cancer fever. Cancer fever is a sign that the patient is sicker, and we can lower the temperature with drugs, physical cooling, and ice blankets, but often the effect is not satisfactory.