Today marks the first day of the Australia and New Zealand joint scientific meeting for the Medical Oncology Group of Australia and the Faculty of Radiation Oncology.

This meeting is the highlight of the year for these countries leading oncologists. The first day has seen some excellent presentations, the highlights of which will be brought to you over the next couple of days.

The exhibition hall is another excellent source of information where oncologists interact with personnel from the pharmaceutical industry. This is an excellent opportunity to view key data regarding latest cancer research. This interaction is extremely useful (no free pen or lollie jokes please!) as it allows discussion outside the formal presentations. It allows useful scientific paper reprints to be obtained for later reading.

One of the world's leading (and richest) pharmaceutical companies has thumbed its nose at this process for the second year running. Their exhibition stand features a notice board stating that they are "taking a stand by not having a stand" and they claim that the money spent on having a stand would be used for other purposes such as educational meetings etc. All of the other pharmaceutical companies likewise put on a number of educational meetings which has led many to suggest that the Roche position is simply 'grandstanding'.

A number of delegates at the conference felt that the Roche position was "boring" and "disrespectful".

There is a real danger that the excellent hosts (i.e. the New Zealand oncology community) will perceive Roche's actions as being simply that they can't be bothered making the effort to exhibit in New Zealand.

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