Antibiotic Therapy With or Without G-CSF in Treating Children With Neutropenia and Fever Caused by Chemotherapy

Inclusion Criteria

• •DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• •Histologically diagnosed cancer with fever and chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (absolute neutrophil count no greater than 500/mm3)
• •* Acute onset of fever of at least 38.8 degrees Celsius that is not related to the administration of blood products or pyrogenic substances
• •No acute myelogenous leukemia
• •No myelodysplastic syndrome
• •No solid tumor with bone marrow involvement
• •PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• •Age:
• •21 and under
• •Performance status:
• •Not specified
• •Life expectancy:
• •Not specified
• •Hematopoietic:
• •See Disease Characteristics
• •Hepatic:
• •Creatinine less than 1.5 times upper limit of normal
• •Renal:
• •Not specified
• •Other:
• •No patients in septic shock
• •No prolonged fever of unknown origin
• •PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• •Biologic therapy:
• •No concurrent filgrastim (G-CSF) or sargramostim (GM-CSF)
• •See Chemotherapy
• •Chemotherapy:
• •No prior or concurrent myeloablative chemoradiotherapy with bone marrow or peripheral stem cell rescue
• •Endocrine therapy:
• •Not specified
• •Radiotherapy:
• •See Chemotherapy
• •No prior radiotherapy to marrow reserves (i.e., craniospinal and/or pelvic irradiation)
• •Surgery:
• •Not specified
• •Other:
• •At least 7 days since prior IV antibiotics