Fever of unexplained origin in patients with cancer

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Abstract

Long standing fever, with no obvious origin, has been found in 47 (0·7%) of 6,880 patients admitted to a cancer hospital. Among these patients 27 (57·4%) had leukemia or lymphoma, although this type of illness did not represent a majority among the patients admitted to this hospital.

Infection caused the fever in 27 (57·4%) patients and was most often due to localized infections. Gram-negative rods were most frequently responsible for it.

Fever was attributed to the cancer itself in 18 (38·3%) patients: 5 had acute leukemia in relapse, 6 had extensive lymphomas, 7 presented widespread metastatic carcinomas, and, in 6 of them, large liver metastases were present.

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This investigation was supported in part by a grant from the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique Médicale (FRSM 22368), Brussels, Belgium.

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