The Pope has been operated on for lung cancer

BarcelonaPope Leo XIV has undergone surgery for a pulmonary adenocarcinoma, a type of malignant tumor, as reported by the Vatican in a statement this Tuesday night, hours after the procedure. During the operation, the lower lobe of the right lung was removed using a video-assisted surgical technique.

The statement indicates that "an extemporaneous histological examination confirmed the diagnosis of pulmonary adenocarcinoma, as was suspected in the preoperative tests." The procedure, which lasted an hour and a half, was "successful, without complications," it adds.

The Pope, aged 71, was operated on this Tuesday afternoon at the Gemelli University Hospital in Rome, where he had been admitted a few hours before the operation. The pontiff woke up from anesthesia normally and is resting in his hospital room. It is expected that Leo XIV will remain hospitalized for at least a week to recover from the intervention, and his agenda has been suspended for the time being until next Tuesday the 20th. For now, the medical team has not detailed whether the Pope will require any specific subsequent treatment.

Leo XIV announced on Sunday, from the Apostolic Palace after the Angelus prayer, that he would be operated on for a lung nodule that doctors had detected during a routine medical check-up, and that it was in a very early stage and well localized.

Pulmonary nodules are an abnormal mass of tissue that can be benign or cancerous. The fact that doctors had opted to operate suggested that it could be a malignant tumor, which was confirmed once the medical intervention was performed. The medical team that operated on the pontiff opted for a "radical" procedure to clear the tumor area, and for this reason, they removed the lower lobe of the affected lung.

This Tuesday, in the chapel of the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, the faithful and religious gathered to pray for the Pope's health during his operation, in a Rosary prayer presided over by the cardinal and vicar bishop of Rome, Baldassare Reina. Leo XIV arrived at the hospital walking and greeted the hundreds of people who were waiting for him and part of the medical team and clinic directors. He was accompanied by his two secretaries and his personal physician, Luigi Carbone, a specialist in emergency medicine and surgeon who was already the trusted doctor of Pope Francis.

The last time that dozens of journalists and a large number of the faithful gathered at this medical center in the Italian capital was in March of last year, when Pope Francis was admitted for more than a month, before passing away on April 21st. This is the first medical issue for Leo XIV, who does not smoke, since he was elected Pope in May 2025.