Haematologic toxicity and its most frequent complication, febrile neutropenia represents the main limiting factor to the use of anti-cancer chemotherapy. The recent availability of recombinant human colony stimulating factors offers a new opportunity to improve the tolerance of these treatments. Most randomized trials in various solid tumors have demonstrated the ability of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor to significantly reduce the incidence of febrile neutropenia and related complications. Interestingly enough, these compounds are well tolerated and easy to administrate. However, since the increase in dose-intensity does not translate into any improved efficacy in terms of response rates or survival, the use of colony-stimulating factors has to be decided on the basis of cost-benefit considerations. Therefore, some scientific societies such as the American Association of Clinical Oncology in the US and the Anti-Cancer Centers Group in France have published recommendations for their use in routine oncology practice. We here discuss these guidelines on the basis of an overview of the literature.