NIU and Kishwaukee Community Hospital are involved in a cooperative research project, investigating a potential treatment for bladder and prostate cancers.

“This is a glory for the DeKalb community,” distinguished research professor Narayan Hosmane said. “It is the first time that Kishwaukee Community Hospital is involving themselves with the progression of a research project.”

Hosmane said, for the last few years he and his team have been interested in the syntheses and uses of boron-containing compounds as anti-cancer agents and material precursors.

Medical applications have resulted from this unique phenomenon, enabling the researchers to explore the use of boron as a way of effectively combating cancer while reducing the treatment of side effects.

Three graduate students and six undergraduates, along with Linda Yasui, professor of radiation biology and Dr. Sajit Bux, urologist at DeKalb Clinic and member of the Kishwaukee Community Hospital medical staff, assist with the research project.

“It feels good to be a part of the boron cancer research project,” said Barada Dash, chemistry graduate student who is contributing to the project. “This is something that is not just effective in the DeKalb community but will affect the society as a whole.”

The research team will create new boron drugs, inject the drugs into cancerous tissue samples and radiate the tissue with neutrons. The interaction between the boron and the radiation beam is manufactured to eliminate the boron-injected cancer cells without harming the healthy cells.

“This is a unique phenomenon that no one has explored: the use of boron neutron capture therapy with bladder or prostate cancer,” Hosmane said.

The project is funded by a trust that was established years ago at the National Bank and Trust Company, 230 West State Street in Sycamore. Kishwaukee Community Hospital, 1 Kish Hospital Drive, has donors that make monies available for the research project as well.

The research project will soon be entering its trial stage, where the research team will be testing their prepared boron drugs on rats and mice.

“With cancer being such an epidemic in our society, I believe it’s wonderful that NIU is associating themselves with such prominent research,” said Charles Martin, junior health administration major. “It steps up our university’s epsilon when compared with others across the nation.”

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