ROME (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV has been diagnosed with lung cancer following a 90-minute surgery on Oct. 13 during which surgeons removed the lower lobe of the pope's right lung.
Dr. Stefano Margaritora, the hospital’s chief thoracic surgeon, led a medical team in the video- assisted technique operation. In a joint statement with Dr. Luigi Carbone released at just before 10 p.m. Rome time, the doctors said that the “examination confirmed the diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, as suspected by the preoperative tests.”
“The Holy Father was in the operating room for about 3 hours; the surgery itself lasted approximately 90 minutes,” the statement said. “After the surgery, the pope woke up as expected and, following a brief period of observation, returned to his room on the 10th floor.”
The surgery to remove a lung nodule on Oct. 13 was completed successfully, the Vatican announced that night.
The pope underwent the surgery in the late afternoon after being admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital at 1 p.m. Rome time.
Pope Leo is expected to remain for one week of recovery in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, located atop Monte Mario, the highest hill in Rome. The Vatican has canceled all of the pope’s scheduled audiences through Oct. 20.
The operation on Tuesday took place just two days after he first revealed to the world that he needed surgery at the end of his Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 11.
Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace, the pope announced that doctors had discovered a nodule in his lung during a medical examination, adding that the growth was detected “at a very early stage” and it was “well-contained.”
This was the second hospitalization in the 71-year-old pope’s life, according to a recently published biography. Shortly after his election, Pope Leo said that he had only been hospitalized once in his life before becoming pope when he caught typhoid fever after recently arriving as an Augustinian missionary in Peru in 1985.
“It’s the only time in my life I’ve been hospitalized,” Pope Leo is quoted as saying in the book, “Pope Leo XIV” by Elise Ann Allen, calling it “a very significant” moment in his life that helped him more sharply focus on his new ministry.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
