ROME — Surgery on Pope Leo XIV found lung cancer Tuesday, prompting doctors to remove a portion of his right lung, the Vatican said, raising fresh concerns about the health of the first U.S.-born pontiff.
Doctors discovered the “pulmonary adenocarcinoma” — a type of lung cancer — in a surgery that the Holy See described as “successfully completed.” Nevertheless, the removal of a cancerous lesion rippled through the Catholic world only 17 months into Leo’s papacy, even as the Vatican sought to project reassurance.
Leo stunned Vatican City during a regular address in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday when he calmly announced the discovery of a small lesion in his lung. The 71-year-old pope said that the nodule had been detected “at a very early stage and is well localized,” and that he was following doctors’ advice by having it removed.
The Vatican, however, had not previously disclosed the results of earlier tests. On Tuesday evening, it said a frozen section exam — or a rapid analysis preformed during surgery — had confirmed information previously in its possession — that earlier, preoperative diagnostics indicated the adenocarcinoma diagnosis.
During three hours in the operating room — including a 90-minute surgery — the lower lobe of the pope’s right lung was removed using a video-assisted technique.
The length and manner of Tuesday’s surgery, the Vatican said, was “as envisioned.” Following the surgery, the Vatican said, the pope regained consciousness “normally,” and after a brief period of observation, was returned to his room, where he later ordered a meal. He was being attended to by aides, nuns and medical staff, the Vatican said.
Leo is known for being physically fit. He plays tennis matches regularly and swims. His family’s health history, however, includes a mother — Mildred Prevost — who died of cancer in 1990 after undergoing chemotherapy. His 74-year-old older brother, Louis Prevost, told the Italian paper Corriere della Sera on Tuesday that he is also currently hospitalized and undergoing cancer treatment.
“I am sure that he will fully recover and that he will continue in his mission to lead the Catholic Church,” the elder Prevost said of his brother.
Adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer, according to Lung Cancer Foundation of America. It forms in glandular cells on the outer part of the lungs, and it is more likely to be detected before it has spread given its relatively slower growth.
Leo was elected pope last year with predictions of a long pontificate given his relatively young age. Within 17 months, he has already completed four major international trips in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. On Nov. 6, Leo is scheduled to undertake a grueling 12-day tour of Latin America, including his homecoming in Peru — a country where he became a citizen while serving for more than 20 years as a missionary and bishop.
Vatican officials late Tuesday said doctors were not currently speaking about Leo undergoing chemotherapy, and did not confirm whether he had any lymph nodes removed. They said further tests would be done on the removed lesion.
They maintained for now that nothing had changed regarding the pope’s planned trip to Latin America.
Yet the news sparked concern about his health.
“Everyone is afraid of the C word, it tends to instill panic in everybody, even though medicine is much better today and hopefully they got this soon enough, so it hasn’t had a chance to spread,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a U.S. priest and expert on the Vatican. “The next question is will he need [chemotherapy]. But I think clearly the public loves this pope, you saw the response to him in France and Spain, and people are going to be very sad and worried about him.”
The last pope to suffer from cancer was John XXIII, who died in 1963, some nine months after being diagnosed with stomach cancer.
As the pope entered the hospital Tuesday, he smiled and waved to several hundred people gathered at the entrance.
The Vatican has estimated Leo’s recovery time at one week, and the Holy See said late Monday that all papal audiences would be canceled through Oct. 20.
The nodule, the Vatican said, was discovered while the pope was receiving a regular checkup. Lung nodules are localized lesions measuring less than one inch that can show up in diagnostic tests.
Raja Flores, chairman for the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the Mount Sinai Health System, said that adenocarcinoma is very treatable if it is caught early, before it has spread to other parts of the body. Surgery is usually sufficient to remove the cancer, though a patient will still need regular scans to check for recurrence of the cancer.
“If it’s localized and it didn’t go anywhere else, usually surgery is the only treatment is you need,” Flores said.
Doctors usually perform an analysis of the tissues removed during surgery to determine if lung cancer has spread to the lymph nodes, said Edward Chan, chief of thoracic surgery at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. That can take a week or two after the surgery. Chan added that it was a positive sign that the pope did not receive additional treatment, such as chemotherapy, before his operation.
“That’s a good indicator that there was no spread of the cancer prior to the surgery,” Chan said.
The experts said they could not comment definitively on the pope’s condition without more information about his diagnosis and the tumor that was removed, but that outcomes for patients who have had similar operations for early-stage lung cancer are generally positive.
At “the pope’s level of health, he should be able to live a normal life with normal activity after this kind of surgery,” Chan said.
The discovery of the nodule was deemed significant enough to rush a procedure during a critical week in Vatican City, when major cardinals and leaders from bishops’ conferences across the globe had gathered at Leo’s request to discuss issues surrounding marriage and the family.
News of the procedure caught many in Vatican City off guard. In a Monday statement, two senior cardinals organizing the conference — a reflection on Pope Francis’s teachings on family issues from a decade ago, including his controversial opening for divorced and remarried Catholics to take Communion — said they had written to Leo on Sunday “upon hearing the news.”
The cardinals, Kevin Farrell and Mario Grech, noted that Leo had been unable to participate in the sessions as planned and had advised clergy that he would not be making his expected concluding address.
“Once the Holy Father has completed his convalescence, we will present the assembly’s results to him,” the cardinals wrote.
Leo’s hospitalization also means he will be unable to present a new sustainability award named after the pope and being conferred by his alma mater, Villanova University. The medal ceremony was scheduled for Tuesday in Castel Gandolfo, the summer papal residence 16 miles southeast of Rome.
At the Gemelli Hospital on Tuesday, well-wishers sounded notes of optimism. Daniela Parisi, 60, a practicing Catholic and retired local official from Frosinone, an Italian province south of Rome, awaited the pope while visiting her sister, who is hospitalized at the same hospital.
“I was very sorry when I found out, because the pope is personally very important to me,” she said. But, she added, “I’m confident that this physical issue will get sorted.”
She called herself initially astonished by the idea of an American-born pope. But, she said, “he’s grown on me.”
Daniel Wu contributed to this report.
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