John Peters
With construction equipment rumbling in the background, NIU President John Peters joined U.S. Rep. Bill Foster at the proton therapy center construction site last week to announce $4.8 million in new federal funding for the project, along with $1.2 million for the neutron therapy program managed by NIU at Fermilab.
Foster called the cancer-fighting programs “vital to saving lives and creating jobs.” He credited Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Danny Davis in working with him to secure the total $6 million in funding.
“This is exactly the kind of investment we should be making in our universities,” Foster said.
NIU has played a leading role in development of plans for the state-of-the-art Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center. It is under construction at the DuPage National Technology Park in West Chicago, the site of the press conference.
Beginning in 2010, the center will offer proton therapy, an advanced and highly effective form of radiation currently unavailable in Illinois. The noninvasive therapy is the treatment of choice for certain pediatric and adult cancers.
Peters said the Illinois congressmen “clearly recognize the benefits that this center will bring to cancer patients in this region and beyond.
“The center also will create new jobs and, as a place of learning and research, serve to train the next generation of medical professionals and spur new technologies aimed at improving quality of life,” Peters added.
Even as the center is being constructed, NIU is laying the groundwork for proton therapy-specific nursing, education and allied health programs. This center not only will deliver proton therapy but also bring a holistic approach to treating adult and pediatric patients.
Proton therapy is offered at only a handful of centers nationwide, and neutron therapy is available at only two sites in the country. NIU assumed management responsibilities for the Institute for Neutron Therapy at Fermilab in 2004. Neutron therapy blends advanced medical science with cutting-edge accelerator physics developed at Fermilab.
Peters said he envisions NIU as being a leader in producing professionals needed for the delivery of particle therapies. He credited Foster, a scientist who once worked at Fermilab, with being a quick study on the importance of bringing proton therapy to the region.
At one point during the press conference, Foster turned to face the nearby Fermilab campus, with its signature building, Wilson Hall, towering in the distance. The building is named in honor of the laboratory’s first director, the late Robert R. Wilson.
Foster called Wilson a “personal hero” and said the inaugural laboratory director would be proud of this moment. During the 1940s, Wilson had proposed the use of protons to treat cancer.