Naproxen has greater antipyretic effect on Hodgkin's disease‐related fever than on other tumours or infection

Abstract

In 28 febrile patients with malignant lymphoma or leukaemia, the hourly temperatures were recorded following an oral dose of 125 mg naproxen (50% of normal single adult analgesic dose). 15 patients had clinical infection, and 13 had fever secondary to their malignant disease. Compared to controls, there was no significant antipyretic effect of 125 mg naproxen in infected patients, whereas this small dose in patients without infection had a significant effect. In the uninfected patients, the antipyretic effect was significantly more marked in fever related to Hodgkin's disease than to non‐Hodgkin lymphoma or leukaemia. This selective antipyretic effect of a prostaglandin‐synthesis inhibitor in turnour‐related fever, especially in Hodgkin's disease, is unexplained but may be useful in the palliative treatment of patients with advanced disease.

Naproxen for the treatment of neoplastic fever

“…[9] All these higher doses of naproxen had complete response with lysis of fever. Furthermore, 125 mg naproxen was also mentioned in one study [5] ; this small dose in 13 patients also had a significant effect.…”

“…All of these case series studies are low risk of bias. According to the AHRQ items to assess the risk of bias of the cross-sectional studies, 2 studies [5,29] scored 7 and 1 [13] scored 6, which are classified as the moderate quality (Table 5). [5,13,29]…”

“…Subsequently, a series of studies were conducted to verify the role of naproxen in the treatment of neoplastic fever patients. [5–9]…”