Asia shares fall on fears oil price to slow growth (AP)

BANGKOK – Asian markets fell sharply Tuesday as traders dumped shares following steep drops on Wall Street amid concerns that political unrest in Iran and Libya could send oil prices soaring and paralyze the global economic recovery.

Oil prices rose to more than $100 a barrel, and the dollar strengthened against the yen and the euro.

Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average was down 2.2 percent to 10,513.37 while South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.7 percent to 1,926.02. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 1.7 percent to 23,007.29.

Investor sentiment wilted over higher fuel prices and their effect on the global economy, as unrest in oil-producing countries continued. Iran clamped down on anti-government protesters and forces loyal to Libya's leader Moammar Gadhafi launched counterattacks against rebels expanding control over the country.

Fears that the unrest might spread to Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, is keeping many investors on the sidelines, said Matthew Lewis, head of sales trading in Sydney at CMC markets.

"The trigger, I think, is that the Libyan crisis looks like it is not going to go away as easily as it did in Egypt. Iran is showing a little bit of unrest," he said. "There is growing concern that Saudi Arabia is in the middle of that. What would happen to oil prices if there were civil unrest in Saudi Arabia?"

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was off 0.6 percent to 4,797.80. The Australian economy grew 0.7 percent in the final quarter of 2010, according to official figures released Tuesday. That met expectations and didn't have much impact on the market, said Lewis.

Shares in New Zealand, mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore were also lower. Indian markets are closed Wednesday for the holiday of Mahashivratri.

In Tokyo, fears of a further global slowdown weighed on exporters like major electronics and car manufacturers. Toshiba Corp. was down 2.2 percent and Sony Corp. lost 2 percent. Toyota Motor Corp. was 2.5 percent lower.

Sharp Corp. dropped 4.6 percent after Morgan Stanley cut its rating in a report that went out early Wednesday, citing concerns over its LCD panel business.

Airline shares also fell on concerns over fuel prices. Qantas Airways Ltd. dipped 2.1 percent, while Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. lost 2.3 percent. China Southern Airlines Co. Ltd. was down 4 percent and All Nippon Airways Co. Ltd. lost 2.7 percent.

The falls came after big drops in the U.S., where the Dow Jones industrial average lost 1.4 percent to 12,058.02, and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 1.6 percent to 1,306.33.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee that a sustained increase in crude prices could pose a risk to the U.S. economic recovery. Also in the U.S., the Commerce Department said the amount of new homes and offices started by builders fell in January. The annual rate was near its decade low, set in August.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was up 38 cents at $100.01 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.66 to settle at $99.63 a barrel on Tuesday.

In currencies, the dollar climbed to 81.89 yen from 81.84 yen late Monday in New York. The euro slid to $1.3754 from $1.3775.

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Drug may slow growth of early prostate cancer (AP)

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione, Ap Medical Writer – Tue Feb 15, 6:55 pm ET

A new study suggests a way to help men with early, low-risk prostate cancer avoid being overtreated for a disease that in most cases will never threaten their lives. It found that a drug can slow the growth of these tumors in men who opt to be monitored instead of having treatment right away.

This is the first time that a drug for treating enlarged prostates also has been shown to help treat prostate cancer in a rigorous study. It may persuade more men to choose active surveillance, or "watchful waiting," instead of rushing to have treatments that can leave them with urinary or sexual problems, doctors say.

However, the results also show that most of these men do very well with no treatment at all.

"We're identifying men who are not likely to need even a pill," said Dr. Maha Hussain, a University of Michigan cancer specialist. But Americans fear cancer so much that they want some kind of treatment and underestimate the financial and medical risks of treating low-risk cases, she added.

She is program chair of a cancer conference in Florida where the study will be presented later this week. Results were released Tuesday in a telephone news conference sponsored by the American Society for Clinical Oncology.

Roughly half of the 218,000 men diagnosed each year in the United States with prostate cancer have low-risk disease — PSA blood levels under 10 and low tumor aggressiveness scores.

"The American view of cancer" is that it's always best to treat, so about 80 percent of these men choose to have that right away, said Dr. Otis Brawley, a prostate cancer expert who is chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.

In Europe, though, most choose watchful waiting — close monitoring and treatment only if the cancer progresses or causes pain or other problems.

Doctors know that drugs that shrink the prostate — GlaxoSmithKline PLC's Avodart and Merck & Co.'s Proscar — can help prevent prostate cancer. But federal health advisers recently recommended against taking them for this purpose because of potential risks.

The new study tested Avodart "not to prevent cancer, but to prevent the progression" of it in men who already have the disease, which may be a much better use of such drugs, said the study's leader, Dr. Neil Fleshner of University Health Network and Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto.

"We know the vast majority of these men are not destined to die from that cancer," and wanted to see if Avodart could make "watchful waiting" safer, Fleshner said.

The study enrolled about 300 men in the United States and Canada with low-risk cancer that was confirmed by a biopsy. They were given daily Avodart or dummy pills and new biopsies 1 1/2 and three years later.

Prostate cancer got worse in 38 percent of men taking Avodart and 49 percent of those on dummy pills. Final biopsies showed no signs of cancer in 36 percent of men on Avodart versus 23 percent of those on dummy pills. Doctors say this last result shows how tiny many of these cancers were to start with, that they couldn't even be found when new biopsies were done.

Doctors don't think Avodart can cure cancers, but it seems to suppress it, said Dr. Howard Sandler, a prostate cancer specialist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He had no role in the study but is involved with the cancer conference.

Researchers gave no details on Avodart's side effects, but said no new ones appeared in the study. Avodart and Proscar are known to cause sexual problems for some men, but many men over 50 have this anyway and only about 5 percent more do when taking these drugs, said Brawley, who helped test Avodart for cancer prevention.

The new study was sponsored by Avodart's maker, GlaxoSmithKline. Avodart and Proscar cost about $4 a pill; generic versions of Proscar are available for about $2. Proscar is similar to Avodart but has not been tested for treating early cancer as this study did.

Sandler said Avodart might relieve some men's anxiety about monitoring their disease and may make them more comfortable not having immediate treatment.

"If it was me, I'd choose active surveillance," he said. Avodart "has the potential to be an important help."

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Online:

Prostate cancer info: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/prostate

and http://tinyurl.com/ASCOanswers

Risk calculator: http://tinyurl.com/riskcalculator

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