As published in the Kane County Chronicle
Published on September 30, 2009
By Jonathan Bilyk

A proton therapy cancer treatment center appears poised to open in Chicago's western suburbs by early 2011.

Precisely when a second one will join it, however, remains in doubt.

Earlier this week, Central DuPage Hospital and its partner, ProCure Treatment Centers Inc., began the work of installing a key – and very large – piece of equipment at its cancer treatment center in Warrenville.

The 220-ton cyclotron – a device that accelerates sub-atomic particles to be used to fight various types of cancer – was delivered to the site near Interstate 88 and Winfield Road Monday. It had traveled to the site from Belgium, first by ship across the Atlantic Ocean and then by truck across the eastern half of the United States.

Over the next one to two months, workers will place it within a concrete vault in the building and begin connecting it to the equipment used to deliver the proton therapy treatment.

The installation of the cyclotron marks an important moment for the construction of the $140 million treatment center, said John Cameron, president of Bloomington, Ind.-based ProCure.

"The big heart of the center has arrived," Cameron said.

He estimated that the facility will be completed and receive its first patients in January 2011, wrapping up work in a little over two years.

CDH and ProCure received permission from the state to build the facility in September 2008 after winning a months-long fight with a group associated with Northern Illinois University.

That group had won permission from the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board to build its own proton therapy cancer treatment center in West Chicago in February 2008.

But after winning its permit for the Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center, the NIU-affiliated group moved to oppose the CDH/ProCure project.

However, shortly after development work at its site in the DuPage National Technology Park in West Chicago, just east of Geneva, construction of the NIPTRC has ceased, said Gary Mack, a spokesman for the NIPTRC group.

Mack said the group has been unable to sell the bonds needed to fund the $159 million project.

"The market froze on us," Mack said.

However, he said, NIPTRC expects to move forward with the bond sale by the end of the year, as its financial adviser, JPMorgan Chase, has told them it believes the market will thaw soon.

"We should have an open door to move forward," Mack said.

However, Mack could not say what the implications of the slowdown could be for the center as it works with state regulators. In February 2008, NIU officials assured state regulators it could complete the center in 24 months, as required under the terms of the certificate of exemption, the kind of permit obtained by NIPTRC.

Without the financing, however, the project could not be completed by February 2010.

Mack said NIPTRC has updated the state planning board regularly of its progress and pitfalls.

He said NIPTRC believes the state board will allow it to continue work, even after the February deadline.

"Just in terms of the tens of millions of dollars we've invested in this already, it would be very surprising if the board would say, 'Oops, sorry, you can't build this anymore,' " Mack said. "Whatever needs to be done, we will do."