Bispecific antibodies in immunotherapy for adult acute leukemia: latest updates from the 65th American Society of Hematology 2023 Annual Meeting

Bispecific antibodies (BsAbs) represent a novel and potentially effective approach in cancer immunotherapy. These antibodies feature two unique binding domains, enabling them to simultaneously attach to two antigens or two epitopes of a single antigen. Recently, a variety of BsAbs targeting distinct B-cell antigens and myeloid lineage-specific surface markers – such as CD19×CD3, CD38×CD3, and CD123×CD3—have demonstrated promising results in heavily pretreated relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (R/R ALL) and relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (R/R AML) patients. At the 65th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2023, which took place in San Diego, California, from December 9-12, 2023, new results from different trials were reported by different research groups. We provide a summary of the latest progress in BsAbs for immunotherapy in adult acute leukemia.