A NEW HOPE

Buzz, click. Buzz, click. Buzz click. The sounds of the machine remain steady, interrupted very briefly by a nurse changing the IV bag.

“Do you have any plans for celebrating your 50th birthday?” a man asks Westra.

“I don’t know,” she says. Then a huge smile emerges on her face. “I’m excited to turn 50. I hear people say ‘Oh, no. Not that.’ My thought is ‘Oh, yes!’” Westra raises her clenched fists and moves her head up to look toward the ceiling. “Bring it on. I want all the numbers. I want all the ages.”

The goals of the Center for Engineered Cancer Test Beds are enormous. Provide relief to patients like Westra. Speed up the time it takes for cancer drugs to get to market. Stop the disease even if it has spread to bone. Cure cancer.

The effort includes renowned NDSU scientists and professors, as well as graduate and undergraduate students. The students, Katti says, will be a vital part of the project’s success.

If the center can help reduce the 15 years and $2.5 billion it takes to get a new cancer drug to market, it will have an incredible global impact.

“I’ve had every kind of treatment I can think of, possibly that they have,” Westra says. “I’ve done radiation to my head twice, to my back, to my lung. I’ve had five or six operations. I’ve lost track of number of chemotherapy treatments I’ve had.”

As she continues, Westra becomes more expressive with her hands. They move up-and-down, back-and-forth. The need for innovations like the Center for Engineered Cancer Test Beds is clear to her. She’s met mothers, daughters, fathers, sons, neighbors and strangers who are battling cancer with tenacity and grace. They want, more than anything, the luxury of living their lives and growing old.

Westra pauses for a moment to think about what the success of NDSU’s center could mean for cancer patients and their families. Fewer side effects. Less pain. Lower costs. More and better treatment options, faster. A cure. Her eyes widen and eyebrows raise.