Those of us following cancer news wait with baited breath for news of cures and treatments with promising results. So it's always a bit of a disappointment when it's bad news, like this: New Zealand researches and determined that the clinical trails on an Ovarian Cancer Drug called DMXAA have not demonstrated any positive results.

The premise behind the drug was that it could kill cancer by reducing the blood supply to tumors, and it was given to Ovarian Cancer patients, along with Chemotherapy, to see if it would make a difference in recovery. Unfortunately, it didn't, and research on Ovarian cancer will be put on the backburner to make way for Lung Cancer trials at Novartis in New Zealand.

New Zealand Christchurch Hospital radiation therapists are in a dispute over pay and have threatened to stage a strike beginning the first week of January. According to the hospital's clinical director of radiation oncologist Dr. Chris Wynne, the amount of money being argued over is so small that the other doctors have offered to pitch in and make up the difference to end the dispute and avert a strike that would affect 250 cancer patients.

Because Dr. Wynne has not received a response from the District Health Board or the radiologists regarding the monetary offer made by the doctors, he has decided to bring attention to the dispute by doing something even he admits is stupid -- he has started smoking. That's right. He is standing outside the hospital smoking cigarettes in a play for media attention. Obviously, it is working, as the story has been picked up around the globe.

But surely, was this the only way he could think to bring attention to the dispute? Who knows -- you and I might have chosen a different course of action -- but Dr. Wynne thinks it is the only thing left to do to bring attention to the innocent victims who will be affected by the strike -- the cancer patients who will have to go without timely treatment. Dr. Wynne says he will continue doing a stupid thing by smoking for as long as it takes until the stupidity of the entire situation ends.