Vatican: Pope Leo has lung cancer, had lower lobe of right lung removed

ROME — Pope Leo XIV has lung cancer and had the lower lobe of his right lung removed when he underwent surgery Tuesday, according to the Vatican, which reported that 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 the surgery would be performed by a team led by Gemelli’s chief thoracic surgeon, Dr. Stefano Margaritora.

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 Leo’s prognosis is “excellent” since the node was 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 canceled 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,” 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.

A sophisticated robotic bronchoscopy technology called ION allows a biopsy on nodules as small as 1/10 of an inch, Dr. 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.

The nodule was discovered during regular checks, the Vatican has said.

“I think he has had a bit of luck. They found something that was asymptomatic — a lung nodule, possibly a tumor. He might call it something else; we call it luck,” he said.

IEO advises patients not to fly for three weeks after surgery — which would give the pope just the interval needed to make his planned Nov. 6-17 trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, depending on his recovery. The current itinerary for the trip is ambitious and the longest of his papacy to date, calling for Leo to clock just over 19,000 miles on a dozen flights and two helicopter rides, and a significant altitude change in Peru.

This is believed to be the second hospitalization for Leo, who is known to be sporty and in good shape, with weekly tennis games and swimming.

As a young missionary priest, he came down with typhoid fever in 1985, soon after arriving in Chulucanas, Peru. The illness and hospitalization were a cathartic moment for him to decide to stay in the poverty and discomfort of Peru after living in relative comfort in Rome — a decision that ultimately paved the way to his papacy, according to an interview Leo gave to Elise Ann Allen in 2025 for “Pope Leo XIV: The Biography.”