The historical example of national cancer network developments provides a roadmap for starting a national network of depression centers. Once a heavily stigmatized disease, referred to as the “Big C” and often kept secret even within families, cancer of any kind used to be a virtual death sentence. Then in the latter half of the 20th century, a variety of efforts approaching the problem on multiple fronts began to form and make progress. Founded in 1956, the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), is an example of one such project. A grant-funded research cooperative organization, SWOG operates with the mission of coordinating large-scale, multi-site research across the United States. In 1960, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) began providing grants to cancer-focused interdisciplinary centers that had already been created with state or private funds. In 1971, a major step was taken as President Nixon signed the National Cancer Act, authorizing $1.5 billion for a National Cancer Program and the establishment of 15 new NCI-designated Cancer Centers. With this historic initiative, the unprecedented “War On Cancer” launched in the United States. The original intent of this bill was to have a cancer center within 200 miles of every U.S. resident, enhancing the application of cancer discoveries to patients and people at risk. Finally, in 1985 the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a nonprofit beneficiary of the NCI, published its first annual report alongside the creation of the first ever set of comprehensive clinical guidelines for best practices in cancer diagnosis and treatment intervention. The NCCN now maintains these clinical guidelines with the best and most current recommendations of leading research.
What was the result of these efforts?
The United States has seen a thirty percent decline in cancer deaths over a period of just forty years. In 1975, a patient diagnosed with cancer had an average 50.1% chance of 5-year survival. By 2005, this survival rate average had increased to almost 68%. This means that on average, thirty percent more individuals who were diagnosed with cancer survived for 5 years after diagnosis in 2005 than in 1975.
No such improvement has been seen in mental health statistics, in relation to either treatment dissemination or treatment efficacy upon intervention. This should come as no surprise, however, considering that mental health research still receives only one eighth of the funding that cancer treatment does. Furthermore, nearly a quarter of Americans identify depression as a personal weakness, while only 3% would say the same of cancer.
