Pope Leo XIV was diagnosed with lung cancer after undergoing surgery on Tuesday. Doctors removed a lower lobe of his right lung during the 90-minute procedure, the Vatican said in a statement.
Doctors examining a nodule during their operation on the 71-year-old pontiff confirmed a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, The New York Times reported. The Vatican’s statement said cancer had been “suspected by preoperative tests.”
“The Holy Father underwent thoracic surgery as scheduled,” Dr. Luigi Carbone and Professor Stefano Margaritora said in a joint statement, according to CNN. “The lower lobe of the right lung was removed using video-assisted surgery.”
The statement made no mention of any future treatments, including chemotherapy, The Associated Press reported. Doctors most likely would have removed the pope’s lymph nodes on Tuesday for testing to determine if the cancer had spread, according to the news organization.
A Vatican spokesman said that the statement spoke for itself, the Times reported.
There has been no word yet about those test results.
In a statement on Wednesday, the pope spent “a tranquil night” in Rome’s Gemelli hospital.
Earlier Tuesday, Vatican officials said the pope’s surgery was completed, “successfully, on schedule and as planned,” Vatican officials said, according to The Associated Press.
He was taken back to his room after the surgery was complete and spent a total of three hours in the operating room, the Times reported
According to the Cleveland Clinic, lung adenocarcinoma is a common form of lung cancer. Survival rates for it vary depending on the stage of the cancer and a patient’s overall health.
[ Pope Leo XIV lung surgery complete ]
Sudish Murthy, a thoracic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, told the Times that the information released about the pope appears to indicate that he has early stage lung cancer. The condition is typically treated through surgery and tends to have a very high survival rate, Murthy told the newspaper.
The Gemelli hospital has a special suite of rooms for the pope on the 10th floor, of the facility, which Pope John Paul II once nicknamed “Vatican three” during his stays there, CNN reported.
St. Peter’s Square is Vatican one and Castel Gandolfo, the papal residence, is Vatican two, according to the cable news outlet.
The surgery was the first medical issue for the Leo XIV, the first pontiff from North America who was elected by the College of Cardinals last year to succeed the late Pope Francis I, the Times reported.
He revealed his medical condition during his weekly blessing from St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, according to the newspaper.
The pontiff has canceled all of his public events until Oct. 20, CNN reported.
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