The NIU-tied Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center is still being pieced together.

Site construction was finished in December and NIU has been developing proton therapy-related curriculum since this spring, Trustee Cherilyn Murer said.

The financial sector meltdown brought up concerns that the center would not make the spring 2010 opening date, but NIPTRC officials remained optimistic, according to a Northern Star article on January 27, 2009.

“We need to hear the music in the halls when we open this facility,” Murer said.

The project’s cyclotron is currently being built in Germany, according to an informational video presented to the Board of Trustees on June 30. The cyclotron is the key technology used for treating tumors, according to the NIPTRC Web site.

A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator, according to the NIPTRC Web site.

The facility’s budgeted cost is around $160 million and the facility’s location borders Fermilab at DuPage National Technology Park in West Chicago, according to an NIU press release.

“It must pay for itself,” NIU President John Peters said in the informational video. “We are looking at this as our catalyst for excellence.”

Currently, the land at the construction site is cleared and excavated and the building’s support pylons are in place, according to the informational video.

Proton therapy is the much preferred method for treating children because it doesn’t damage developing cells, Allan Thornton, the NIPTRC Medical Director, said in the informational video.

Proton therapy is non-invasive, painless and precise which contrasts chemotherapy, according to an NIU press release.

“Proton therapy is the most precise and advanced form of radiation treatment today,” according to the National Association for Proton Therapy (NAPT). “It primarily radiates the tumor site, leaving surrounding healthy tissue and organs intact.”

In addition to being the preferred method for treating children, adults with certain ailments can benefit from proton therapy treatment as well.

“Proton therapy can be more precisely targeted to the tumor, allowing patients to receive higher, more effective doses, and greatly reducing damage to healthy tissue near the tumor,” according to Central DuPage Hospital’s Web site. “Studies have shown it is effective in treating prostate, breast, lung, colorectal, head and neck and brain tumors, among others.”