A real-world analysis found that mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was associated with reduced all-cause mortality in patients receiving bispecific antibody treatment, suggesting “a potential survival benefit necessitating prospective validation,” according to Mostafa Eysha, MBBCh, of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso, and colleagues who presented the findings at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting.
The retrospective, propensity score-matched cohort study used TiNetX electronic health record data to identify adult patients with hematologic malignancies receiving bispecific antibody therapy. Patients with COVID-19 infection of post-COVID-19 conditions were not included. Patients were matched and stratified based on receipt of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, with 238 patients in each cohort.
All-cause mortality was lower in the vaccinated cohort (21.4%) versus the unvaccinated group (29.0%; P=0.057), and the vaccinated group had significantly improved survival (HR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.38-0.79; P=0.01).
The incidence of grade 1/2 cytokine release syndrome (CRS) was similar in the vaccinated and unvaccinated cohorts (25.2% vs 24.0%), and there was no difference in time to first CRS event between the groups (HR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.68-1.41).
The incidence of immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome was also similar (10.9% vs 11.3%), with no significant difference in time-to-event between the groups (HR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.51-1.50); however, in the vaccinated cohort, there was a higher mean number of ICANS episodes among those who developed this adverse event (2.58 vs 1.67; P=0.036).
“These findings support the safety of mRNA vaccination in this high-risk population,” the authors concluded.
Reference
Eysha M, Turk E, Elchouemi M, et al. The impact of COVID-19 mRNA vaccination on bispecific antibody outcomes in hematologic malignancies: a retrospective multicenter cohort study. Abstract #7040. Presented at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting; May 29-June 2, 2026; Chicago.
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