Background: The treatment of sellar lesions demands an interdisciplinary network consisting of
endocrinologists, neurosurgeons, radio-oncologists, radiosurgeons, ophthalmologists,
otorhinolaryngologists, neuropathologists, and neuroradiologists. Each of these specialists
contributes valuable information to optimize treatment of these patients; however,
a multicenter registry to collect the resulting biomedical data was lacking in Switzerland.
While in other European countries established centers provided the base for nationwide
databases, this was not the case in our country. While due to the low incidence representative
numbers of patients are hard to find for retrospective data analysis, this is automatically
provided by a structured database, resulting in resourceful scientific contributions.
Furthermore, it may be used as a base for prospective multicentric trials.
Methods: Founded at the Kantonsspital Aarau in cooperation with the Clinical Trial Unit of
the University Hospital of Basel with approval of the ethics committee of the northwestern
part of Switzerland, the Swiss Pituitary Registry (SwissPit) has been designed as
an online electronic data capture system. All patients with lesions in the sellar
region are eligible for inclusion in the database. Data generated by routine clinical
follow-up and standard therapies, as well as details about adverse events and outcomes,
is entered by medical staff. In each participating center, a designated neurosurgeon
and/or endocrinologist acts as a local investigator and helds responsibility for the
quality of the entered data. Each center is free to conduct single center trials,
while multicentric studies with exchange of data are coordinated by the project leaders
after appropriate approval. After a thorough test of the database by the founders,
a step-wise growth by inviting other centers is planned.
Results: The SwissPit is online since January 2016. After the Kantonsspital Aarau, the University
Hospital of Basel, the Kantonsspital Lucerne, the Kantonsspital St. Gallen, and lately
the University Hospital of Zurich have joined. Detailed data of > 700 patients have
since then been entered.
Conclusion: The SwissPit is the first multicentric Swiss database on sellar lesions working by
the standards of Good Clinical Practice and in concordance with the revised Swiss
laws. The members of SwissPit look forward to invite further investigators in other
centers to join in 2018!
