A slight increase in temperature in medicine is called subfebrile. It is characterized by thermometer values from 37.4 to 38 degrees. It is believed that subfebrile temperature in oncology is one of the earliest signs of development and growth of a cancerous tumor, the spread of metastases to nearby organs.
Can there be a low-grade fever in oncology?
In fact, the described symptom is not considered a specific manifestation of cancer. More often a subfebrile condition meets against a background of languid chronic inflammations, neurologic or infectious diseases.
A rise in temperature to 37.4-38 degrees may be in oncology, but it is usually recorded in the late stages of tumor growth. This is due to the fact that cancer cells have spread throughout the body and damaged most of the internal systems, provoking inflammatory processes in them.
As a rule, subfebrile condition is observed in the following forms of oncological pathologies:
- cancer of the large intestine;
- lymphoma ;
- myeloid leukemia;
- kidney cancer;
- lymphosarcoma;
- lung cancer ;
- lymphocytic leukemia.
Can chemotherapy give a subfebrile temperature in cancer?
Drugs used in the treatment of cancer, greatly weaken the immune system, as well as disrupt its normal functioning. Therefore, after the chemotherapy, the temperature of the patients' body can indeed rise to 38 degrees. Usually this symptom is accompanied by other unpleasant phenomena - weakness, nausea, decreased efficiency, vomiting, a tendency to viral and bacterial infections.
The subfebrile temperature during cancer treatment lasts long enough, up to several months. Thermoregulation of the body is restored after the normalization of the immune system.