B-cell malignancies, such as the B-cell subtype of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma andchronic lymphocytic leukemia, are significant contributors to cancermortality. The response of B-cell malignancies to various forms of treatmentis mixed. Traditional methods of treating B-cell malignancies, includingchemotherapy and radiotherapy, have limited utility due to toxic side effects.Immunotherapy with anti-CD20 antibodies have also provided limited success.The use of antibodies that bind with the CD22 or CD19 antigen, however,provides an effective means to treat B-cell malignancies such as indolent andaggressive forms of B-cell lymphomas, and acute and chronic forms of lymphaticleukemias. Moreover, immunotherapy with anti-CD22 and/or anti-CD19 antibodiesrequires comparatively low doses of antibody protein, and can be usedeffectively in multimodal therapies.
