Management of febrile neutropenia in malignancy using the MASCC score and other factors: Feasibility and safety in routine clinical practice.

Background: The current standards for empirical broad-spectrum intravenous antibiotic (AB) treatment, combined with hospitalization, are cautious and safe, but lead to over-treatment of a substantial group of patients. We need to validate parameters to identify these low-risk febrile-neutropenia (FN) patients, who could then be safely treated in an outpatient setting with minimal/no AB treatment.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective analysis for validation of a risk-assessment model in FN patients was done on a patient population from January 2007 to December 2008.