The Vatican says Pope Leo XIV spent a peaceful night in Rome’s Gemelli hospital after surgery to remove part of his right lung and confirm lung cancer.
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The Vatican said Pope Leo XIV spent a peaceful night in Rome’s Gemelli hospital after doctors removed the lower lobe of his right lung and confirmed he has cancer.
In a medical bulletin released late Tuesday, the Vatican said the surgery confirmed the most common type of lung cancer, lung adenocarcinoma.
The Vatican said doctors were waiting for results of further tests before deciding on a treatment plan.
The Vatican pointed to the “radical” removal of the lobe as an indication that doctors removed all suspect tissue, and it noted that additional tissue—such as lymph nodes—would have been removed and tested to determine whether the cancer had spread.
Dr. Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center who was not involved in the pope’s care, said adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer and is associated with a more favourable prognosis, adding that the next step is determining the stage. He said: “We now need to know how big it is, how many spots in the lung are involved. Is it just one nodule, or more than one, and the lymph nodes, are they cancerous?”
The Vatican said the surgery itself lasted approximately 90 minutes, with the pope in the operating room for about three hours, and that “there were no complications.”
The Vatican said Pope Leo XIV is staying in a nearby room because a papal apartment at Gemelli is undergoing renovations, and it said the pope had a planned trip to South America for November that may depend on his recovery.
The Vatican also said it cancelled all of the pope’s audiences through Oct. 20, while providing no specific timing update on whether he will be able to keep the planned South America itinerary.
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