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Pope Leo XIV underwent surgery Tuesday that confirmed that he has lung cancer, and doctors removed the lower lobe of his right lung, the Vatican said.
Tests confirmed a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin after the surgery. It said the diagnosis had been suspected by preoperative tests and was confirmed during surgery.
The statement made no mention of treatment going forward, and the Vatican said doctors were not currently speaking of chemotherapy or other therapies pending the results of other tests. The Vatican press office noted the medical statement spoke of the "radical" removal of the lobe as an indication that doctors removed all suspect tissue in hopes of removing any lingering traces of the cancer.
Leo's lymph nodes also would have been removed and tested, to determine if the cancer had spread, and there was no word yet on those test results.
"Adenocarcinoma is the most common [type of lung cancer], also with the most favorable prognosis," said Dr. Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. "While we know the diagnosis we now need to know the stage.
"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?"
If the cancer has spread, more tests will be needed to determine what kind of therapy to pursue, he said. Options include chemotherapy, a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy or targeted therapy, which involves oral pills for specific cancers.
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 Vatican statement said, adding that the pope later returned to his room.
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.
