Insights from the First Five Years of the Prospective Ocular Tumor Study

Standardized data collection is needed to improve research for rare diseases. In this manuscript, we describe our experience establishing the Prospective Ocular Tumor Study (POTS).

The ongoing POTS captures all patients with an ocular tumor seen on the Ocular Oncology Service at Mayo Clinic Rochester and collects patient demographics, tumor features, treatment, and outcomes. This manuscript reports data collected from July 2019-July 2024.

During a 5-year time period, 1,766 patients enrolled in the database, with 975 (55%) females, 1,732 (98%) white race, and mean age 61.5 years. The most frequent tumor types were choroidal melanoma (n = 610 [34%]), choroidal nevus (n = 575 [32%]), iris nevus (n = 95 [5.3%]), iris melanoma (n = 46 [2.6%]), and vitreoretinal lymphoma (n = 46 [2.6%]).

The POTS is a valuable source of detailed, longitudinal data on rare ocular tumors. Expanding standardized data collection across multiple centers will facilitate improved outcomes research in ocular oncology.