Vatican confirms Pope Leo XIV has lung cancer

AAP in Rome

Pope Leo XIV has undergone surgery that confirmed he has lung cancer, and doctors have removed the lower lobe of his right lung.

The tests confirmed a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin on Tuesday after the surgery.

It said the diagnosis had been suspected by preoperative tests and was confirmed during surgery.

The 71-year-old was in the operating room for about three hours, the statement said. The surgery itself lasted approximately 90 minutes.

“The surgery was successful, and there were no complications,” the statement said.

Leo had walked into Rome’s Gemelli hospital through the main entrance earlier in the day and waved to dozens of well-wishers who had gathered to greet him.

The Vatican said the surgery would be performed by a team led by Gemelli’s chief thoracic surgeon, Dr. Stefano Margaritora.

The American pontiff has offered a rare level of transparency about the first publicly disclosed major health problem of his 17-month papacy.

He revealed the discovery of the small, localised nodule during his Sunday noon prayer and announced that he would have it removed.

Oncologists said prior to the operation that even if the nodule turned out to be cancerous, Leo’s prognosis is “excellent” since it will have been removed at an early stage.

The Vatican on Monday cancelled all Leo’s audiences through to next Tuesday.

While Gemelli has a specific papal apartment that past popes have used, complete with a private chapel on the 10th floor, Leo will actually be staying in a nearby room since the papal apartment is currently undergoing renovations, according to the Vatican press office.

There was no word on whether Leo would be able to keep his planned trip to South America in November.

A lung nodule is a small abnormal area measuring less than three centimetres that sometimes appears on a CT scan of the chest or abdomen. Often, the scans are done to investigate trauma or a lung infection, unrelated to a lung cancer screening.

A nodule can be benign or malignant, and oftentimes surgical removal is recommended both to establish whether it is cancer and to treat a malignancy while it is still localised.

This is believed to be the second hospitalisation for Leo, who is known to be sporty and in good shape, with weekly tennis games and swimming.