Preclinical rationale leading to clinical benefit: Multiple myeloma as a poster child

CN02-03 For many years the clinical advances for patients with myeloma were limited. The recent approval of the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib and immunomodulatory agent lenalidomide has revolutionized patient care and outcomes for patients at all phases of their disease. Preclinical investigations have led to clinical trials that seek to optimally combine emerging agents with approved agents, as well as to define which new agents are best suited for Phase I/II trials in myeloma. Targets such as HSP-90, HDACs, monoclonal antibodies, CDK inhibitors, and many others were interrogated in preclinical models, and have now yielded clinical benefit for patients with relapsed or refractory myeloma. Further preclinical evaluation is critical to designing rational clinical trials and to developing appropriate correlative studies for these innovative clinical trials.