Pope Leo XIV will not need further treatment after lung cancer surgery, the pope’s doctors said in a statement issued by the Holy See Press Office on Wednesday, 21 October. Final tests confirmed that the tumour was localised.
The statement was signed by the pope’s personal physician, Dr Luigi Carbone, and Prof. Stefano Margaritora, the surgeon who performed the operation. According to Vatican News, the final histopathological examinations and molecular biology tests of the tissue removed during the procedure were completed on Wednesday.
„The results confirmed that it was an adenocarcinoma of the lung and that the disease was localised. A subsequent oncological evaluation confirmed that no further treatment is necessary.”
This is the essence of the doctors’ statement, translated from Polish and quoted by Vatican News. The BBC, AP and France 24 also reported the news.
What is known about the operation
Leo XIV himself announced the lung lesion after the Angelus prayer on Sunday, 11 October – we wrote about it in our article on the announced lung surgery. The procedure took place at Gemelli Polyclinic on 13 October. As ABC News reported, citing doctors, it was a minimally invasive video-assisted operation in which the lower lobe of the right lung was removed. The surgery lasted about 90 minutes, and the pope spent about three hours in the operating room. Doctors reported no complications at the time, and the first Vatican statement after the procedure said it had gone successfully.
The pope left hospital on Saturday, 17 October, four days after the operation, earlier than planned. As AP reported, the Vatican had initially anticipated a stay of about a week. The nodule was reportedly discovered by chance during routine tests, according to AP, which cited Prof. Margaritora speaking to Vatican News.
What is lung adenocarcinoma
According to CNN, it is the most common type of lung cancer, accounting for about 40 per cent of cases. It often affects people who have never smoked. AP explains that additional treatment is usually recommended when post-operative tests show metastases, for example to lymph nodes, or features of particularly aggressive disease. When the tumour is detected very early, surgery alone is often sufficient. The Vatican statement does not give the stage of the disease or details of the test results.
Return to duties
On Wednesday, 21 October, Leo XIV held his first general audience since the operation. In St Peter’s Square he also greeted Poles, as we reported in our article on the pope’s return to audiences. According to CNN, he said the experience had given him a deep sense of closeness to people affected by illness. Earlier, on Sunday, 18 October, he led the Angelus prayer from the window of the Apostolic Palace. France 24 writes that the pope will gradually return to his activities. Prof. Margaritora told Vatican News that there are no clinical reasons to cancel the planned trip to South America.
What it means
For the faithful in Poland, the key information is that, according to the pope’s doctors, he faces no chemotherapy or other adjuvant therapy. There is also no announcement of changes to the schedule of upcoming audiences. The Vatican has not given dates for follow-up tests.
