Optimizing risk predictive strategies in febrile neutropenic episodes in children and young people with malignant disease

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This project will develop a method of identifying children and young adult patients at low risk of harm when they present with febrile neutropenia, a complication of treatment for cancer. This may allow us to reduce the intensity or duration of the aggressive in-patient antibiotic treatment we currently use. The project will use individual patient data (IPD) pooled analysis, where the data from previously conducted studies are brought together and analysed to come to a more precise conclusion than any individual study could.The project will form an international collaboration to collect the data, which will include researchers, doctors and parents. The analysis will try to find out if there are particular factors that would help us predict which children have the best outcomes. We will start by looking at the simplest information (such as the age of the child, or their diagnosis) and build in more complex data (such as specialized blood test results) to see if these make the prediction more accurate. The results of this analysis will be tested, and the potential economic effects estimated. The methods used in performing IPD analysis will also be investigated, advancing our understanding of how best to conduct such studies.