On a sunny day in June, approximately 250 people went to the DuPage National Technology Park to witness the groundbreaking ceremony for NIU’s Proton Treatment and Research Center, located at 777 Discovery Drive.

The groundbreaking ceremony represented the first physical step toward the completion of the $159 million facility, which will administer proton treatment to cancer patients. Proton therapy is a non-invasive form of therapy, and is often the therapy of choice for pediatric and adult cancers.

Cancer survivors, state officials and officials from NIU were there to celebrate the groundbreaking, which took place last Thursday.

State Rep. Bob Pritchard (R-70), Sen. Brad Burzynski (R-35), the mayor of West Chicago, Michael Kwasman, along with NIU President John Peters, NIU Board of Trustees Chair Cherilyn Murer, and others, were in attendance for the ceremony.

“Two years from now, patients at the Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center will benefit not only from advanced cancer treatment, but also from the many proton therapy-specific nursing, education and allied health programs under development at NIU,” Peters said in a press release.

The 110,000-square-foot facility abounds the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, which helped to build the country’s first hospital-based proton treatment system in California.

However, the Loma Linda University in California is not the only institute to receive Fermi Lab’s help; NIU also received help from the neighboring lab.

“Physicists from Fermi have been working as consultants, helping pick equipment and helping with planning,” said John Lewis, the executive director for the Proton Treatment and Research Center. “We’ll continue relationships with Fermi, as physicists from there [Fermi] will be involved in research projects.”

The construction for the center is expected to be completed in 2010, and the first patient will be treated by the end of February in 2010, Lewis said.

Initially, the center will treat fewer than 100 patients in its first year; by its second year it will be treating about 400 to 500 patients; by its third year it will be treating 800 to 900 patients, and by its fourth year it will be at full capacity – which means approximately 1,500 patients will be treated.

Additionally, the center will only by staffed by about 50 personnel when it first opens, but that number will be about 150 by the time the center is treating patients at full capacity, according to an NIU press release.

The center is an out-patient treatment facility, and will provide proton therapy for pediatric, prostate, head/neck cancers, and will also treat patients that suffer from certain ophthalmologic disorders, according to an NIU press release.

According to Lewis, most insurances, as well as Medicare and Medicaid, will provide some reimbursement for proton therapy, allowing the center to treat “virtually any patient.”

“The cost varies from patient to patient, but most patients receive about 20 to 40 treatments, and Medicare reimburses somewhere in the low $30,000’s,” Lewis said.

This is a regional resource that the people of Illinois will be able to benefit from, Lewis said.

“Also of importance though, is the strong research [and] educational components the center will have – these make it unique in Illinois,” Lewis said.