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Could I obtain the number of people who were diagnosed with chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia and the number of deaths due to chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia in 2008?

We are unable to provide an accurate figure on the number of patients diagnosed with chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia owing to the nature of the question. Febrile neutropenia is not a diagnosis in itself but covers a variety of clinical situations. Neutropenia is a clearly defined term but there are grades of neutropenia and only the most severe of these would lead to a susceptibility to infection. Also, patients can get infections when neutropenic with being “febrile”. As well as these two problems, many patients having chemotherapy for haematological diseases have neutropenia as part of their disease process and it is impossible to say whether the neutropenia is chemotherapy induced or disease related. As such we do not feel able to provide a figure for the incidence of “chemotherapy induced febrile neutropenia” without a significant risk of inaccuracy.

The same problems apply to deaths related to this issue with the added complexity that the cause of death is often certified as the disease itself rather than the treatment

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164210109

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21^st January 2009

Febrile Neutropenia

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