Will early-stage liver cancer cause a low-grade fever?

Written by Cui Fang Bo
Oncology
Updated on January 31, 2025
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Patients with early-stage liver cancer may experience low-grade fevers, primarily due to the following two reasons: First, tumor fever. In the early stages of liver cancer, some tumor cells can release tumor mediators into the bloodstream, affecting the function of the temperature regulation center and causing the patient to develop a fever. This type of tumor fever is usually not very high, remaining below 38.5°C, without concurrent symptoms or signs of infection. A complete blood count typically indicates that the total number of white blood cells and the proportion of neutrophils are not elevated. The second scenario involves patients in the early stages of liver cancer experiencing fever due to concurrent infections. These patients often present with symptoms and signs related to infection, such as coughing up phlegm, abdominal pain and diarrhea, and urinary frequency, urgency, or pain. The proportion of white blood cells and neutrophils is significantly increased in these cases.

Other Voices

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Does early-stage liver cancer cause pain when pressed?

In the early stages of liver cancer, patients generally do not experience pain when pressing on the liver area. Pain in the liver area or a sensation of liver pain typically occurs in the middle or late stages of liver cancer and is a common manifestation. The main reasons for the pain are that the liver cancer lesions are large, causing an increase in liver volume, which leads to a tense pain in the liver capsule. Additionally, the invasion of liver cancer into the liver cells and surrounding tissues can cause pain. Another cause of pain may be abnormal hormone secretion triggered by the lesions, which then stimulates the pain perception centers, resulting in pain. For patients with early-stage liver cancer, the tumors are generally small and usually do not cause noticeable clinical symptoms. In many cases, patients may exhibit non-specific symptoms such as indigestion and mild fatigue. In contrast, patients with middle to late-stage liver cancer often exhibit more clinical manifestations due to the progression of the disease.

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Is primary liver cancer contagious?

Primary liver cancer refers to malignant tumors that occur in the liver and are not metastasized from other parts of the body. Such liver cancer itself is not contagious. However, if liver cancer patients have other infectious diseases, transmission may be possible. Most primary liver cancers are related to liver cirrhosis following hepatitis, with hepatitis B being the most common. If accompanied by hepatitis B, it can be contagious, but it usually doesn't spread through regular daily contact. The main transmission routes for hepatitis B are through blood, mother-to-child transmission, and sexual transmission. This means that as long as the patient's blood does not injure someone else, contagion is generally unlikely, so there is no need for excessive worry.

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Does early-stage liver cancer metastasize?

Patients with early-stage liver cancer generally do not experience metastasis. This is because for patients with early-stage liver cancer, the lesions are localized and have not spread, thus being classified as early-stage. Moreover, the general treatment for patients with early-stage liver cancer involves curative surgery. Since the lesions are localized, in most cases, there will be no recurrence or metastasis after the surgery. Therefore, for early-stage patients, there is no need to administer adjuvant radiotherapy or adjuvant chemotherapy and other anti-tumor treatments after the surgery. However, once the liver cancer lesions invade surrounding tissues and metastasize to distant sites, it indicates that the lesions have spread, and the clinical stage has progressed to mid or late stages, losing the opportunity for curative surgery. Most patients undergo comprehensive treatments such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy which generally results in a reduction in survival time.

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Can liver cysts turn into liver cancer?

Liver blisters are a colloquial term often referring to cysts in the liver. Modern medicine considers liver cysts to be a degenerative change and a benign lesion that does not undergo malignant transformation or develop into liver cancer. Primary liver cancer mainly includes two types: hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma within the liver. Additionally, there is metastatic liver cancer, which is caused by the metastasis of malignant tumors from other parts of the body to the liver, commonly including liver metastases from colon cancer, lung cancer, etc. Whether primary or secondary metastatic cancer, these liver conditions are distinctively different from liver cysts in imaging studies. Identification is not difficult through examinations such as color Doppler ultrasound, CT, or MRI.

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What changes occur in the hair during the early stages of liver cancer?

Liver cancer is a common type of tumor in the digestive system in China, and patients with early-stage liver cancer generally do not experience significant changes in their hair. This is because the tumors in early-stage liver cancer patients are relatively small, and the treatment often involves surgical removal, which does not require chemotherapy or other anti-tumor treatments, so the impact on the patient's hair is minimal. As the disease progresses, some patients may need to undergo chemotherapy or other anti-tumor treatments, which can lead to hair loss or changes in hair color. However, hair changes after chemotherapy in liver cancer patients are generally reversible, and hair can regrow after the end of chemotherapy. Changes in hair color, on the other hand, are generally caused by pigment deposition induced by some chemotherapy drugs.