FYI
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From: Interactions News Wire [mailto:newswire@interactions.org]
Sent: Monday December 06, 2004 11:40 AM
To: interactionsnewswire
Subject: [Interactions News Wire] #71-04 - NIU launches Institute for
Neutron Therapy at Fermilab
Interactions News Wire #71-04
6 December 2004
http://www.interactions.org
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Source: Northern Illinois University
Content: Press Release
Date Issued: December 6, 2004
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Contact: NIU Office of Public Affairs
(815)753-1681
NIU launches Institute for Neutron Therapy at Fermilab
Naperville, Ill.—Northern Illinois University today announced plans to
revive a unique and proven cancer treatment that blends advanced medical
science with accelerator physics developed at Fermi National Accelerator
Laboratory, a Department of Energy laboratory in Batavia, Ill.
The newly formed NIU Institute for Neutron Therapy at Fermilab will
deliver neutron therapy to patients and conduct extensive research on
the high-tech cancer-fighting treatment. Neutron therapy has been shown
to be superior for some types of cancer, including adenoidcystic
carcinoma, locally advanced prostate cancer, locally advanced head and
neck tumors, inoperable sarcomas, and cancer of the salivary glands.
The institute will serve as many as 145 patients annually and could
begin treating patients as soon as mid-January. Working in tandem with
hospitals in the region, the neutron therapy center at Fermilab treated
more than 3,100 patients over nearly three decades. But treatments came
to a halt in May of 2003, when a local hospital ended its involvement
with the program.
“I’m pleased to announce that Northern Illinois University has brought
new life to this important cancer treatment program,” U.S. House Speaker
Dennis Hastert said. The congressman, a longtime supporter of Fermilab’s
cancer-treatment efforts and NIU research, worked to secure commitments
for congressional appropriations of $2.7 million over three years to
fund the institute.
“The clinic at Fermilab has provided a viable, important treatment
option to thousands of patients, and we couldn’t let it disappear,”
Hastert added. “This new NIU Institute will continue to investigate,
document and advance the benefits of this treatment, which is not widely
available in the United States.”
The NIU Institute for Neutron Therapy will be one of only three sites
nationwide to offer the neutron therapy option.
“We must express our gratitude to Speaker Hastert. His support of this
new partnership will potentially benefit thousands of cancer patients in
the future and lead to new innovations in battling the disease,” NIU
President John Peters said. “Fermilab is recognized as a pioneer in the
field of neutron therapy. With the newly combined resources of Fermilab
and NIU, we believe the institute will take a leadership role in
advancing this form of cancer treatment and making it more universally
available.”
Neutron therapy is a highly effective form of radiation using neutrons
instead of electrons or photons, which are used in conventional
radiation treatments. Fermilab’s proton linear accelerator generates the
neutron beam. It is applied to localized malignant tumors that may occur
anywhere in the body and are otherwise inoperable or resistant to
conventional radiation.
Because neutrons work so well, neutron therapy patients typically
require only 12 treatments over four weeks—compared to 30 to 40
treatments over eight weeks for conventional radiation.
Neutron therapy was a natural extension for Fermilab; the world’s
premier high energy physics laboratory, funded by the DOE’s Office of
Science, was one of the few places with the necessary technology.
“The Office of Science welcomes the NIU Institute for Neutron Therapy at
the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory,” said
Dr. Raymond L. Orbach, Director of the DOE Office of Science. “From the
earliest days of high-energy physics in the 1930s to the latest
21st-century initiatives, the innovative technologies of particle
accelerators have created powerful new tools for medicine. The
technology breakthroughs that allow physicists to unlock the deepest
secrets of the universe also inspire advances in the understanding,
diagnosis and healing of disease. The NIU Institute for Neutron Therapy
at Fermilab is a good example.”
Fermilab Director Michael Witherell welcomed the new contract with NIU.
“Fermilab has been providing neutrons for cancer therapy here since
1976,” Witherell said. “We are pleased to be entering a new phase in the
history of neutron therapy, in partnership with Northern Illinois
University.”
Dr. Aidnag “A.Z.” Diaz has been hired to serve as medical director of
the NIU Institute for Neutron Therapy. He comes to NIU from Buffalo’s
Roswell Park Cancer Institute, a National Cancer Institute-designated
comprehensive cancer center. There he served as co-director of the
Gamma-Knife Center, director of neuroradio-oncology and associate
professor in the Department of Radiation Medicine.
“I’m very excited about this opportunity because we have a real chance
to expand the field of neutron therapy, which is available at only about
a dozen clinics worldwide,” Diaz said. “Our main task is to give health
centers in the region an extra tool to treat their patients.
Neutron therapy has an important niche in radiation oncology, and losing
this tool would be detrimental to the entire field.
“I’ve been exposed to neutron therapies both in my research and in my
clinical practice,” Diaz added. “For a specific group of cancer types,
neutron therapy is significantly better than standard radiation. The
field has the potential to take off, but we need to continue to
demonstrate the usefulness of neutron therapy and investigate new
indications while showing that clinics offering this type of treatment
can be self-sustaining.”
The institute will focus on treatment of those cancers that have been
clinically proven to respond to neutron therapy. While the facility at
Fermilab in the past drew patients from across the country and around
the world, Diaz said the institute will work to strengthen its ties to
the northern Illinois region and neighboring states. The university
affiliation will allow the neutron therapy center to ramp up research
efforts as well.
“Once we have accomplished our initial goals, we intend to conduct
research on the effectiveness of neutron therapy on other types of
cancer,” Diaz said. “It’s advantageous to have NIU with its many
resources running this program because the university’s mission is to
educate and to discover.”
The NIU Institute for Neutron Therapy also will benefit from the
expertise of medical physicist Arlene Lennox, considered one of the
world’s leading experts in neutron therapy. She recently was named a
fellow of the American Physical Society in recognition of her
contributions to neutron therapy. She has managed the neutron therapy
facility at Fermilab since 1985 and will continue as technical director
of the institute.
“I’m thrilled that we’re reopening,” said Lennox, who also is an adjunct
professor of physics at NIU. “The accelerator we have here at Fermilab
produces the highest-energy neutron beam in the world. That’s important
because it means the beam can reach cancer cells anywhere in the body.
Because of the superior technology and technical support that we receive
at Fermilab, we’ve produced very good clinical results.
“We would very much like to build upon those encouraging results,”
Lennox added. “That’s why the clinic needed to partner with a major
research university. NIU will help to disseminate more information about
neutron therapy and extend our research efforts. Neutron therapy
certainly could be extending more lives, possibly saving more lives and
providing a better quality of life for many patients.”
The institute will draw on the expertise of NIU experts in health
administration and researchers and clinicians in such fields as
chemistry, physics, biology, nursing, engineering, counseling and speech
and language pathology. NIU scientists will explore the effects of
treatment, map out cancer-related genes, work toward developing new
drugs and study the efficiency of combined therapies, such as
chemotherapy and neutron therapy.
“We want to bring our best researchers and brightest students into the
effort to document the success story behind the neutron therapy facility
at Fermilab and to further develop applications of neutron therapy
beyond its current state through basic and clinical research,” said
Rathindra Bose, NIU vice president for research and dean of the Graduate
School. Bose himself is an award-winning biochemist and cancer researcher.
Fermilab has developed highly effective treatment protocols, but without
an academic link, the research aspect of neutron therapy just hasn’t
been able to flourish,” Bose added. “If we can ratchet up the efforts of
NIU scientists, I think it will benefit the field greatly. The potential
for expanded uses remains largely unexplored.”
More information on the NIU Institute for Neutron Therapy at Fermilab is
available online at www.neutrontherapy.niu.edu
<http://www.neutrontherapy.niu.edu>.
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