The Myeloma Beacon is pleased to announce the launch of an important new service.  Starting today, the Beacon Web site will include a range of online discussion forums.  These multiple myeloma forums will make it easy for patients, caregivers, and others with an interest in myeloma to meet, share, and discuss myeloma-related information.

The Beacon also is announcing today a major new collaboration that has been arranged in recognition of the significance to the myeloma community of the new Beacon forums.

Over the course of the next month, physicians from four leading myeloma research and treatment centers will be responding to a selection of questions and comments that forum users post to the Beacon’s new forums.  Forum users will have a chance to get expert feedback from physicians at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, the Mayo Clinic, the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Physicians from one specific center will review and respond to selected questions during a given week, starting with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute this week.

“The Myeloma Beacon already is a leading online resource for myeloma patients,” said Boris Simkovich, publisher of the Myeloma Beacon.  “With the launch of the new discussion forums, we hope the Beacon will become a place for both multiple myeloma information and multiple myeloma community.”

Simkovich added that the Beacon team has spent months developing and testing the forum service.  He has been particularly impressed, he said, by some of the special features that have been integrated into the service.  “I asked the team one day if we could have a Facebook-like ‘wall’ capability in the forum,” Simkovich said.  “A few days later, it was done and ready for testing.”

Members of the Beacon writing and editorial staff will be online and taking part in forum discussions on a regular basis.

Anyone interested in posting a comment or question in the forum can do so without becoming a registered user.  Registration is necessary, however, to use a number of the forum features, such as private messaging.

Julie Shilane, an associate publisher of The Myeloma Beacon, said she hopes users of the forum will send comments and suggestions related to the service to the Beacon staff.  “We want the forum to serve the myeloma community as best as possible.  So we are continuing to work on new features for the service, and we really want to hear what we can do to make it better.”  Feedback about the forum can be sent to the Beacon at .