Introduction: Pituitary adenomas with gangliocytic component are rare tumors of the sellar region that are composed of pituitary adenoma cells and a ganglion cell component. Their histogenesis and hence nosology is not yet resolved because of the small number of cases reported and lack of large series in the literature.
Methods: Herein we report five cases of pituitary adenoma with gangliocytic component to add knowledge to this rare neoplasm.
Results: Three cases are functional mammosomatotroph adenomas, one case is functional sparsely granulated somatotroph adenoma and the other is functional corticotroph adenoma. Gangliocytic component showed immunohistochemical expression of hormones in three cases. The ganglion cells were prolactin immunoreactive in case 1, GH and TSH immunoreactive in case 5 and showed expression of prolactin, TSH, ACTH and FSH in case 4. Three cases had undergone more than one surgery of which two had gangliocytic cells only in the recurrent tumors whereas the third case showed gangliocytic cells only in the initial tumor.
Discussion: The cases are discussed with clinical and histological features and a brief review of the literature considering the histogenesis is included.