mystery fever?

[cyalata]

I was in the hospital for 3 days over the weekend because of a fever that would go up & down. This has been going on for about 2 weeks. They did numerous tests on me & couldn't find any reason so the doctors are saying it's probably from the cancer and when it goes over 100.4 I take 2 tylenol & it goes down for the whole day. I just started navelbine & herceptin but have only had 2 treatments of the navelbine due to being in the hospital & then holding off another week so I can get back on schedule. Has anyone had a problem with fever? Gail

[Jackie07]

Don't know if this is the answer, but seems it's common for cancer patients to have fever because of neutropenia:

Rev Med Brux. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21688591#) 2011 Mar-Apr;32(2):74-82.
[Febrile neutropenia at the emergency department of a cancer hospital].

[Article in French]
Debey C (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Debey%20C%22%5BAuthor%5D), Meert AP (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Meert%20AP%22%5BAuthor%5D), Berghmans T (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Berghmans%20T%22%5BAuthor%5D), Thomas JM (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Thomas%20JM%22%5BAuthor%5D), Sculier JP (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Sculier%20JP%22%5BAuthor%5D).
Source

Unité des Soins Intensifs médico-chirurgicaux et Urgences oncologiques & Oncologie Thoracique, Institut Jules Bordet, Centre des Tumeurs de I'ULB, Bruxelles.

Abstract

Febrile neutropenia is an important cause of fever in the cancer patient. When he/she is undergoing chemotherapy, the priority is to exclude that complication because it requires rapid administration of empiric broad-spectrum antibiotics. We have studied the rate and characteristics of febrile neutropenia in cancer patients consulting in a emergency department. We have conducted a retrospective study in the emergency department of a cancer hospital over the year 2008. Every patient with cancer and fever > or = 38 degrees C was included. Over 2.130 consultations, 408 were selected (313 patients) including 21.6% (88) for febrile neutropenia. A focal symptom or physical sign was present in the majority of the cases. 88% were assessed as low risk for severe complications and about half of them received oral antibiotics. There were only a few patients with a nude fever for which it was difficult to make a hypothetical diagnosis in order to administer a probabilistic treatment. The majority of the consultations lead to hospital admission. Over the 80 hospitalisations, 6 deaths occurred. There was no death among the patients who remained ambulatory. In conclusion, our study shows that febrile neutropenia is frequent in ambulatory cancer patients presenting with fever and that in the majority of the cases, it is associated with a low risk. In such a situation, ambulatory management is more and more often considered or, at least, a rapid discharge after a short admission in case of low risk febrile neutropenia. In that context, the role of the general practioner has to be emphasised and to facilitate the outpatient management, we propose an algorithm that requires validation.

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38 C = 100.4 F