The article, “Feasibility, efficacy, and safety of animal-assisted activities with visiting dogs in inpatient pediatric oncology” by Steff et al., published in the
World Journal of Pediatrics in September 2024, offers a significant contribution to the field of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) in oncology [
1]. The authors effectively demonstrated the importance of animal-assisted activity (AAA) for pediatric oncology patients and the challenges and opportunities of implementing AAA in an inpatient oncology setting. More significantly, this study makes an important contribution to the limited body of research on infection control in pediatric oncology care and addresses a critical gap in research concerning safe AAA and AAT practices for neutropenic cancer patients. …