Does cancer cause fever?

Some cancers can cause fevers. It's not really understood why certain cancers cause fevers and others don't. It's thought that some cancers may produce things like toxins that can cause a fever.

Cancers that cause fever

The cancers most likely to cause fevers include:

• non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL)
• Hodgkin lymphoma
• acute or chronic leukaemia
• kidney cancer (renal cell cancer)
• liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma)
• soft tissue sarcoma - this is cancer of the supporting tissues of the body such as the muscle, nerves, fat and blood vessels
• adrenal gland tumours such as phaeochromocytomas
• tumours in the part of the brain called the hypothalamus such as chordoid glioma
• ovarian cancer

Your doctors might not be able to find any reason for your fever.

Some types of Hodgkin lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma cause night sweats and high temperatures that come and go with no obvious cause. This symptom, along with other tests can help diagnose what type of cancer you have. 

In Hodgkin’s lymphoma, there is also a rare condition whereby you might have a fever in cycles. This means your temperature rises and falls over a week or two. You may have days or weeks when you don't have a temperature and then the fever starts again.

Cancers that don't often cause fever

The most common types of cancer, such as breast cancer, lung cancer and bowel cancer, do not generally cause fever. But they may do if:

• the cancer has spread to the liver
• the cancer is causing an obstruction or blockage somewhere in your body

Treating fever

There are a number of treatments available to help you with a fever.