ROME — Pope Leo XIV has lung cancer. Surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung on Tuesday, and testing done during the operation confirmed lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican said in a medical statement issued Tuesday evening through the Holy See Press Office.
The statement came from Dr. Luigi Carbone and Professor Stefano Margaritora, who led the surgical team at Rome’s Gemelli hospital. The operation itself lasted about ninety minutes. Leo spent roughly three hours in the operating theatre. He woke up normally afterward and, after a brief period of observation, returned to his room on the hospital’s tenth floor.
“The operation was successful and there were no complications.”
To ensure a radical procedure, the lower lobe was removed using a video-assisted technique, the doctors said. The diagnosis, confirmed by examining tissue taken during the operation, had been suspected from tests done before the surgery.
Hours earlier, Leo had walked into the hospital through the main entrance and waved to the well-wishers gathered outside. The Vatican’s first statement, issued when the surgery ended, said only that it had been completed successfully, on schedule and as planned, and that further information would follow.
Leo told the public about the operation himself. At Sunday’s noon Angelus in St. Peter’s Square, he said a recent check had found a nodule in his lung, caught early and well-contained, and that he had decided to have it removed on his doctors’ advice.
The surgical team was led by Professor Margaritora, assisted by Professor Elisa Meacci, Dr. Maria Teresa Congedo and Dr. Leonardo Petracca Caravella. The anaesthesia team consisted of Professor Massimo Antonelli, Dr. Giovanni Punzo and Dr. Giuseppe Bello.
The hospital stay is the first of his papacy, and the diagnosis is the first major health problem the 71-year-old pope has made public in 17 months in office. His audiences have been canceled through Oct. 20, and Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Monday that the stay was expected to last about a week.
