Fevers Due To Tumors On Liver

Hi everyone,

My Dad was diagnosed with esophageal cancer with mets to the liver in October of 2007.  He's been getting a fever on and off since then, but in the last 3 months, it's been every night, and more recently starting earlier and earlier in the day, now he has it all day and night.  His doctors tell him to keep taking tylenol to bring the fever down, and that the fevers are due to the liver tumors, and it's just part of the disease.  The fevers are getting higher and less responsive to tylenol.  His fever was over 103 degrees and he took 2 extra strength tylenol and it only brought it down a bit after 2 hours so he had to take 2 more.  Has anyone else experienced this?  I am so scared for him that the tylenol will stop working all together and his fever will just keep going up until it kills him.  He's seen 2 oncologists and they dont know what to do for him with the fevers except tell him to keep taking tylenol.  Is this rare or are there others who have had high fevers due to liver tumors and what did you do?

My father was diagnosed with unresectable HCC 3 weeks back. After considering various options, our oncologist recommended "Xeloda" (capecitabine) 500mg each with a dosage of 3 tablets in the morning and 2 in the evening. He completed 11 days of medication yesterday. We had a blood test performed and his WBC count was very low (3250). Today he developed a fever with a temperature of 101.8 degrees fahrenheit. We called the oncologist and he asked us to give him paracetamol for the fever and an antibiotic - Gatifloxacin 400 mg, one capsule a day for 5 days. He also asked us to stop Xeloda immediately and has asked us to meet him tomorroww morning 9.30 AM Indian Standard Time. I will post an update after I meet him.

 

On 3/31/2008 Linds wrote:

Hi everyone,

My Dad was diagnosed with esophageal cancer with mets to the liver in October of 2007.  He's been getting a fever on and off since then, but in the last 3 months, it's been every night, and more recently starting earlier and earlier in the day, now he has it all day and night.  His doctors tell him to keep taking tylenol to bring the fever down, and that the fevers are due to the liver tumors, and it's just part of the disease.  The fevers are getting higher and less responsive to tylenol.  His fever was over 103 degrees and he took 2 extra strength tylenol and it only brought it down a bit after 2 hours so he had to take 2 more.  Has anyone else experienced this?  I am so scared for him that the tylenol will stop working all together and his fever will just keep going up until it kills him.  He's seen 2 oncologists and they dont know what to do for him with the fevers except tell him to keep taking tylenol.  Is this rare or are there others who have had high fevers due to liver tumors and what did you do?

 

My mother had fevers with her lung cancer.  That was her primary symptom.  They were low grade fevers and Darvacet (which contains Tylenol) worked well.  Later, when she started radiation treatments, her fevers got much higher, up to 103.5 degrees.  She had those fevers several times a day.  The doctors never allowed her to have too much Tylenol, because it's not good for the liver, so I'm surprised they're not trying to find something else to give your father.  Her doctors felt she would probably continue to have fevers for the  duration, but her fevers stopped when radiation was finished.  She had accupuncture at home, and that may have helped.

 

On 4/8/2008 ramsabi wrote:

My father was diagnosed with unresectable HCC 3 weeks back. After considering various options, our oncologist recommended "Xeloda" (capecitabine) 500mg each with a dosage of 3 tablets in the morning and 2 in the evening. He completed 11 days of medication yesterday. We had a blood test performed and his WBC count was very low (3250). Today he developed a fever with a temperature of 101.8 degrees fahrenheit. We called the oncologist and he asked us to give him paracetamol for the fever and an antibiotic - Gatifloxacin 400 mg, one capsule a day for 5 days. He also asked us to stop Xeloda immediately and has asked us to meet him tomorroww morning 9.30 AM Indian Standard Time. I will post an update after I meet him.

Just got back from the oncologist. He said that this reaction was normal because of the low WBC count of 3250. He asked us to monitor my father's fever, continue with paracetamol and  the antibiotic course and once the temperature becomes normal we can restart Xeloda.

What was surprising was the WBC count. The low count of 3250 was from a blood test done on 5th April. Today when we did the test again the count was 7650 which is in the normal range. Is such a drastic increase possible in a period of 3 days?