Patients With Advanced Breast Cancer Failed By Previous Treatment With Taxol and Taxotere Respond to Weekly Administration With

Patients With Advanced Breast Cancer Failed By Previous Treatment
With Taxol and Taxotere Respond to Weekly Administration With the
Investigational Agent Abraxane(TM) 


HOUSTON, June 14  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- US Oncology (NASDAQ:USON) announced
that data presented this week by a network physician at the American Society of
Clinical Oncology annual meeting demonstrate that the investigational drug
Abraxane(TM) (albumin nanoparticle paclitaxel), administered weekly without
steroid premedication, is active and well tolerated in women with metastatic
breast cancer whose disease had progressed while they were treated with
paclitaxel (Taxol(R)) and/or docetaxel (Taxotere(R)).

Based on analysis to date, results showed a 15 percent (95% CI: 8-22%) overall
response rate in 106 patients who received Abraxane 100 mg/m2 administered
weekly over 30 minutes a day without premedication for three weeks followed by
one week of rest, with a 38 percent probability of surviving 12 months. 
Additionally, 40 percent of patients were free of disease progression for as
long as four months, and almost 30 percent for as long as six months. 
Ninety-one percent of patients were able to receive the full dose throughout
the study without dose reduction.

Joanne Blum, M.D., PhD., a US Oncology Principal Investigator at Texas Oncology
PA (TOPA), who practices at Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center, Baylor University
Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, presented the update.  Charles A. Sammons
Cancer Center was one of 38 US Oncology affiliated practices that had patients
participate in the Abraxane clinical trial.

All patients in the trial, sponsored by American Bioscience, Inc., had
progressive metastatic breast cancer while being treated with Taxol or Taxotere
in the metastatic setting, or had a relapse within 12 months of adjuvant taxane
therapy.  The patient population studied had a poor prognosis with 91 percent
having visceral (lung and liver) disease, 65 percent with more than three
metastatic sites and 88 percent demonstrating ongoing tumor growth while on
Taxol or Taxotere.

"The activity of Abraxane and the tolerance of the weekly regimen are
impressive in this population of taxane-refractory patients," said Dr. Joanne
Blum, Principal Investigator of the study.  "Abraxane differentiates itself
from other taxanes because it enables us to administer more cancer-fighting
paclitaxel to the patient without an increase in side effects one might expect
to see with currently available taxane therapies."

"It appears that Abraxane allows for more cancer-fighting drug to be given to a
patient, more of that drug to actually reach the tumor site in the body, and
more of the drug to get inside of the tumor to fight cancer cells."

The tolerability of the weekly regimen was demonstrated by the finding of