Adults with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (R/R ALL) have a poor prognosis, especially if disease burden is high. This post hoc analysis of the phase 3 INO-VATE trial examined the efficacy and safety of inotuzumab ozogamicin (InO) vs. standard of care chemotherapy (SC) among R/R ALL patients with low, moderate, or high disease burden, respectively, defined as bone marrow blasts (BMB) < 50% (n = 53 vs. 48), 50-90% (n = 79 vs. 83), and >90% (n = 30 vs. 30). Patients in the InO vs. SC arm with low, moderate, and high BMB%, respectively, had improved rates of complete remission/complete remission with incomplete hematologic recovery (74% vs. 46% p = 0.0022, 75 vs. 27% p < 0.0001, and 70 vs. 17% p < 0.0001), and improved overall survival (hazard ratio: 0.64 p = 0.0260, 0.81 p = 0.1109, and 0.60 p = 0.0335). Irrespective of BMB%, cytopenias were the most common treatment-emergent adverse events, and post-transplant veno-occlusive disease was more common with InO vs. SC. Patients with extramedullary disease or lymphoblastic lymphoma showed similar efficacy and safety outcomes. This favorable benefit-to-risk ratio of InO treatment irrespective of disease burden supports its use in challenging and high disease burden subpopulations. INO-VATE is registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov : #NCT01564784.