VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV announced Sunday he will undergo surgery “in the coming days” to remove a nodule on his lung, in the first major health event of his 17-month pontificate.
The 71-year-old Leo said the nodule was found at an early stage and was “circumscribed,” or well-localized. The Vatican said Leo’s expected recovery time from surgery would be a week.
The American pope made the announcement during his Sunday noon blessing. He thanked the crowd for their closeness and entrusted himself to their prayers.
The Vatican didn’t say exactly when the surgery would take place, other than in the early days of this week. Leo has one upcoming main event: the closing Mass on Wednesday of a weeklong conference on family ministry, but Vatican officials suggested he might miss it.
A nodule can be benign or malignant
A lung nodule is a small abnormal area measuring less than an inch that sometimes appears on a CT scan of the chest or abdomen, according to the American Cancer Society. Often, the scans are done to investigate trauma or a lung infection, unrelated to a lung cancer screening.
“Lung nodules are fairly common and are often benign, but benign and cancerous nodules can have a similar appearance on imaging,” said Dr. Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“When there is sufficient concern, and when it is safe to do so based on the location of the nodule and the overall health of the patient, surgical removal can provide a definitive diagnosis,” he said.
If the nodule turns out to be cancerous, the prognosis is “excellent” since it will have been removed at an early stage and surgery alone might be all Leo needs in terms of treatment, Liu said in an interview.
“It often can be a blessing in disguise to remove that cancer before it has a chance to grow or to spread,” he said.
Leo has no previously known health problems and is physically active, with weekly tennis matches and swimming at the papal summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo.
The pope has a major trip planned Nov. 6-17 to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. It’s unclear how or whether the planned surgery and recovery might affect the itinerary, but Leo said earlier in his remarks Sunday that he still planned to go.
In his remarks, delivered in Italian, Leo said that during a recent medical check, “doctors found a small, localized nodule in my lung. It was detected at a very early stage and is circumscribed. The doctors believe it’s best to take action, so, following their advice, I have decided to have surgery to remove it.”
He thanked the faithful “for your spiritual support, and I entrust myself to your prayers.”
Surgery to be at the pope’s hospital
Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, died April 21, 2025, of a stroke following a long hospitalization brought on by a respiratory crisis that developed into double pneumonia. Francis suffered from chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man.
Leo is expected to undergo surgery at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where Francis and popes before him were treated and where there is a special apartment for pontiffs. On Sunday, there was no obvious sign that the pope had already been admitted.
Dr. Dionysis Papadatos-Pastos, an oncologist and lung cancer specialist at the London Clinic, stressed that an incidental finding of a lung nodule doesn’t mean lung cancer. And in fact “a well-circumscribed nodule does suggest that this is less likely to be cancer.”
But he said cancer was possible and the main imperative is to investigate. “The worst thing you can do is ignore a lung nodule,” he said in an interview.
Liu, the Georgetown oncologist, said surgical removal in such a case was standard, especially for someone in otherwise good health and if the nodule is in an easily accessible location. A needle biopsy on a lung nodule can be difficult and may not provide doctors with enough information, he said.
“In these cases, surgery itself, while it may seem dramatic, is often very safe, very straightforward with a rapid recovery,” he said, adding that Leo should be in good shape to travel to Latin America next month barring any complications.
Dr. Massimo Di Maio, president of the Italian Assn. of Medical Oncology, said it will be important to determine if the nodule is benign or malignant, and if it is malignant, whether it has spread. When the disease is detected at an early stage, “the aim … is curative,” he added.
Depending on what is found, possible treatments can include chemotherapy and radiation therapy, Di Maio told Italy’s private Sky TG24.
“When we talk about something being localized, that can also refer to the need to establish whether the disease is confined to that one site or whether scans show signs of disease elsewhere,” he said, emphasizing that he has not treated the pope and was speaking about the disease in general.
“Being physically fit and healthy is certainly an important starting point for coping as well as possible with treatment, including surgery,” he added.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, among the few outsiders to visit Francis during his long final hospitalization, expressed her support and that of the Italian government for Leo “as he faces this challenge in the coming days.” In a statement, she added that “the serenity and calm with which he spoke about it” were reassuring.
Winfield and Barry write for the Associated Press. Barry reported from Milan. AP writer Danica Kirka contributed from London.
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