Pope Leo XIV: doctors give all-clear – no further cancer treatment needed
The lung tumour was localised and had not spread, the Pope's doctors say. Leo XIV held his first general audience since the surgery on Wednesday. His South America trip in November remains on.
Archive image · Photo: Edgar Beltrán, The Pillar / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Pope Leo XIV needs no further treatment after his lung cancer surgery. His personal physician Luigi Carbone and surgeon Stefano Margaritora of Rome's Gemelli hospital announced this on Wednesday. Final histological and molecular tests confirmed a localised pulmonary adenocarcinoma that had not spread beyond the lung. A subsequent oncological assessment found that no further therapy is necessary, the two doctors said in their statement, as reported by Euronews.
The 71-year-old Pope himself disclosed a nodule in his right lung during the Angelus prayer on 11 October. On 13 October, the lower lobe of his right lung was removed in an operation lasting about an hour and a half. According to Margaritora, the nodule was found by chance during routine abdominal examinations, and the Pope had no symptoms. Leo XIV left hospital after four days – earlier than the Vatican had expected. He kept working from his hospital room, including a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Wednesday the Pope held his first weekly general audience in St Peter's Square since the operation. At the Angelus on Sunday he had already said he would gradually resume his activities. His trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from 6 to 17 November remains planned. Margaritora told Vatican News there was no clinical reason to cancel it – even though the itinerary includes about a dozen flights, two helicopter rides and high-altitude stops.