100 febrile patients with chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (less than 0.5 x 10(9)/l) were empirically treated by ceftriaxone (2 g daily in adults, 50 mg/kg daily in children, as a once daily injection) and amikacin (15-20 mg/kg daily). The mean age was 41 years (range 8-72). 51 patients had acute leukemia, 29 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, 12 Hodgkin's disease, 8 other disorders. 23 febrile episodes were bacteriologically documented (gram-positive: 13 patients; gram-negative: 8 patients; Candida: 2 patients) including 13 cases of bacteremia; 10 were clinically documented, and 67 remained of undetermined origin. Apyrexia was obtained in 39 patients by ceftriaxone plus amikacin alone (success), in 36 patients after the addition of vancomycin and/or amphotericin B (improvement), whereas in the remaining 25 patients it was necessary to substitute the study drug. The failure rate was correlated to the duration of neutropenia: 0/13 when neutropenia less than 6 days; 3/41 (7%) when 6-10 days; 22/46 (48%) when greater than 10 days. Only 2/20 (10%) of patients with neutropenia greater than 20 days were treated with ceftriaxone plus amikacin alone. 9 of the 23 bacteriologically documented episodes were successes (including 6 of the 11 cases due to Staphylococcus), 7 were improvements and 7 were failures (including the 3 cases due to Pseudomonas). No side effects were seen. Ceftriaxone plus amikacin is an effective firstline antibiotic combination in the treatment of febrile neutropenic patients.