Rome: Pope Leo XIV's surgery confirmed that he has lung cancer and that he had the lower lobe of his right lung removed, the Vatican said on Tuesday.
The tests confirmed a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin after the surgery. It said preoperative tests had suggested the diagnosis, and surgery confirmed it.
The 71-year-old was in the operating room for about 3 hours, the statement said. The surgery itself lasted approximately 90 minutes. “The surgery was successful, and there were no complications,” the statement said.
Pope Leo XIV underwent surgery Tuesday to remove a lung nodule, and the Vatican said the operation was completed “successfully, on schedule and as planned.”
The 71-year-old Leo returned to his room after the surgery at Rome's Gemelli hospital, according to a statement from the Vatican spokesperson, who promised further information at a later time.
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 a team led by Gemelli's chief thoracic surgeon, Dr Stefano Margaritora, would perform the surgery.
The American pontiff has offered a rare level of transparency about the first publicly disclosed major health problem of his 17-month papacy. He revealed the discovery of the small, localized nodule during his Sunday noon prayer and announced that he would have it removed.
Oncologists say even if the nodule turns out to be cancerous, Leo's prognosis is “excellent” since it will have been removed at an early stage.
“In the immediate post-operative setting, no news can be good news,” said Dr. Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Completion of the procedure suggests there were no surprises in the operating room, which is what we want. Final pathology results can sometimes take a few days.”
The surgery, which is usually performed under general anesthesia, will require a weeklong hospital stay, and the Vatican on Monday cancelled all Leo's audiences through Oct 20.
But the decision to have the operation clearly came as a surprise: While Gemelli has a specific papal apartment that past popes have used, complete with a private chapel on the 10th floor, Leo will actually be staying in a nearby room since the papal apartment is currently undergoing renovations, according to the Vatican press office.
“These are things that can be treated very well, if the words he used reflect the clinical situation,” said Dr Lorenzo Spaggiari, director of thoracic surgery at the European Institute of Oncology, or IEO, in Milan, who is not involved in the pope's care but knows the team at Gemelli.
Spaggiari said he expected surgeons would perform a biopsy to determine whether Leo has lung cancer, followed by the removal of a section or lobe of the lung where the nodule is located.
Both could be done using robotic techniques, and could be performed consecutively, under the same anesthesia, with different specialist teams, Spaggiari said.
A sophisticated robotic bronchoscopy technology called ION allows a biopsy on nodules as small as 3 millimeters (1/10 inch), Spaggiari said. Both the Gemelli and the IEO have the technology, which has been available in Italy for just two years.
Gemelli also has robotic surgical technology, allowing the operation to remove the nodule to proceed “using a minimally invasive technique,” he said.
The technique involves the surgeon making four small incisions in the chest through which the instruments of the so-called da Vinci robot are inserted, he said. The surgeon then controls the robotic arms looking at a screen providing high-definition, 3D views of the surgical site.
“It's a very well-established technology. This is something we have been doing for 20 years,” he said.
It wasn't known for certain what technique would be used on Leo. Gemelli has documented using both robotic procedures to diagnose and operate in under four hours.
Tests will determine whether more treatment is needed.
