Central DuPage shifts proposed cancer therapy center to Warrenville

Central DuPage Hospital is changing locations on its plan to build a state-of-the-art proton therapy cancer treatment center in DuPage County.

The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board will host a public hearing next month on the Winfield hospital's latest proposal to build the cancer treatment facility in Warrenville's Cantera development.

John Henderson, chief operating officer of Procure Treatment Centers, the Bloomington, Ind.-based company partnering with Central DuPage on the $125 million project, said the company is pursuing the Warrenville location partly because of fears that Winfield may not be receptive to the new center.

"The (Cantera) site is already prezoned for this kind of use," Henderson said Friday. "It's a bigger site, so it provides flexibility for the future."

Henderson added that Cantera's location along I-88 would be more accessible for patients.

The project, the second of its kind proposed in the Western suburbs, would usher in a 58,000-square-foot facility with four treatment rooms that could, at its peak, be used to treat up to 1,500 patients a year.

In 2006, Northern Illinois University officials announced plans to build a similar $120 million proton therapy cancer treatment and research center in a West Chicago technology park.

NIU, which also needs state approval to build its facility, is expected to present the project to the health facilities planning board Feb. 26.

Gary Mack, an NIU spokesman, expressed concern about Central DuPage's project.

Right now, there are five proton therapy cancer treatment centers in the United States. Mack argued that the Chicago area can't support two facilities.

"Central DuPage is indirectly using this project as a profit-making venture," Mack said. "They're seeing this as a way of getting in the door ahead of NIU and making money."

Procure Treatment Centers' Henderson disputed those claims.

He said the Chicago market can easily absorb two facilities located just a few miles apart.

"It's unfortunate that we're viewed as a competing site," Henderson said. "You can put these sites right next door to each other and still have long lines of people who need to get in.

"Every single center operating around the country has long waiting lists of people who can benefit from this sort of therapy," he said.

The public hearing on the Central DuPage project is scheduled for 9 a.m. March 5 at Warrenville city hall, 28W701 Stafford Place.