1. Introduction
In patients receiving chemotherapy for treatment of cancer,
febrile neutropenia episodes (FNEs) are one of the most common
adverse events. When fever occurs in neutropenic patients, they are
more likely to develop a serious infectious disease [1e4].
The febrile neutropenia (FN) guidelines of the Infectious Diseases
Society of America provide general criteria for identifying
patients for whom empirical antibiotic therapy must be initiated
[5]. Fever is defined as a single oral temperature of 38.3 C or a
temperature of 38.0 C sustained over a 1-h period. Neutropenia
is defined as an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) below 500 cells/
mm3 or an ANC that is expected to fall below 500 cells/mm3 during
the next 48 h.
Management of FN is very important, because infections with
various microbes are major causes of morbidity and mortality in
patients receiving chemotherapy [1e4].