Pituitary adenoma is one of the most common intracranial neoplasms, and its genetic basis remains largely unknown. To identify genetic susceptibility loci for sporadic pituitary adenoma, we performed a three-stage genome-wide association study (GWAS) in the Han Chinese population. We first analyzed genome-wide SNP data in 771 pituitary adenoma cases and 2,788 controls and then carried forward the promising variants for replication in another 2 independent sets (2,542 cases and 3,620 controls in total). We identified three new susceptibility loci below the genome-wide significance threshold (P < 5 × 10(-8)) in the combined analyses: 10p12.31 (rs2359536, P(meta) = 2.25 × 10(-10) and rs10828088, P(meta) = 6.27 × 10(-10)), 10q21.1 (rs10763170, P(meta) = 6.88 × 10(-10)) and 13q12.13 (rs17083838, P(meta) = 1.89 × 10(-8)). This study is the first GWAS to our knowledge on sporadic pituitary adenoma, and our results provide insight into the genetic basis of this disease.