Summary: The IDSA guidelines for treating patients with febrile neutropenia provide relevant and useful management protocols for Asian physicians. Based on international research they highlight the need to stratify patients into high and low risk in order to optimize treatment. The stratification criteria are explained, with potential in the future to further customize the guidelines using further developed Asian criteria. The guidelines also demonstrate the need to incorporate local susceptibility and resistance patterns of all major bacterial pathogens, including those in Asian regions. Such data will help physicians throughout Asia decide on the most appropriate antibiotic to use.