Phillips et al have appropriately brought to light the lack of consistency in the treatment of chemotherapy induced febrile neutropenia in children.¹ We agree with the authors that formulation of a national guideline will help to simplify and streamline the approach to this common problem in paediatric oncology.

The authors have suggested that it may be possible to treat some children with antibiotic regimens of reduced intensity and duration, based on risk stratification. However, most such studies quoted were based on adult data. The few paediatric studies mentioned did not …