The 25th EHA conference took place as a virtual exhibit last month (11th-21st June), with the CTC's INCA trial one of the studies receiving attention.

The conference consisted of a 10 day programme with live and on-demand sessions, including a session on the INCA trial presented by Dr Beth Phillips. 

INCA, which recruited its first patient in October 2013, was a phase II trial investigating whether the number of disease progressions and deaths in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who were not fit to receive standard R-CHOP chemotherapy and were treated with IO-R-CVP (inotuzumab ozogamicin, rituximab, cyclophosphamide, vincristine and prednisolone) is lower than in patients treated with GEM-R-CVP (gemcitabine, rituximab, cyclophosphamide, vincristine and prednisolone). It also looked at patients' disease response, what side effects they experienced, and how treatment affected their quality of life.

It was concluded that there were no significant differences in the number of disease progressions and deaths in patients treated with IO-R-CVP vs GEM-R-CVP.  Higher risk patients (IPI score 3-5) had superior progression-free survival when treated with IO-R-CVP rather than GEM-R-CVP, possibly because GEM-R-CVP patients are able to receive fewer cycles of GEM.  Overall it was concluded that IO-R-CVP is an effective and deliverable treatment for patients with DLBCL who are not fit for standard chemotherapy, particularly in a group of high risk patients, where fewer cycles of GEM-R-CVP are able to be given.  

Further information on the presentation can be found on the EHA website.

For more details on the INCA trial, please see the CTC trial pages.