A team of researchers from China has used a three-stage genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify the genetic causes of sporadic pituitary adenoma in a cohort of Han Chinese patients. The initial analysis looked at genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms in 771 patients with pituitary adenoma and 2,788 control individuals. Variants that seemed to be associated with pituitary adenoma were then tested in two independent cohorts (totalling 2,542 patients and 3,620 control individuals). Three new susceptibility loci were identified: 10p12.31 (rs2359536); 10q21.1 (rs10763170); and 13q12.13 (rs17083838). The authors claim that their study is the first GWAS of sporadic pituitary adenoma.