Stop Treating All Patients with Febrile Neutropenia Similarly

Many patients undergoing active oncologic treatment present to emergency departments (EDs) with febrile neutropenia. Given the risk for infection, as well as the underlying disease burden, these patients are often admitted and given parenteral antibiotics. Joint guidelines from the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Society of Clinical Oncology recommend, instead, that low-risk patients with febrile neutropenia be discharged from the ED with oral antibiotics. To risk-stratify patients, the guidelines use the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) score, which classifies patients as either low or high risk based on their burden of disease, blood pressure, age, hydration status, and history of out…