Pope Leo XIV has lung cancer. The Vatican confirmed it Tuesday, not long after the 71-year-old underwent surgery in Rome to remove a small growth that had shown up on his lung.
The nodule turned up during what the Vatican called routine medical testing. Leo actually broke the news himself on Sunday, telling the crowd gathered for the Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square that doctors had caught it early and that it looked “well-defined.” He said he’d decided to go ahead with the surgery on his doctors’ advice.
Matteo Bruni, who heads the Holy See Press Office, said earlier in the week that the procedure was being scheduled for sometime soon, though nothing official came out about timing until Leo was actually admitted to Gemelli Tuesday.
Leo arrived at the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital Tuesday afternoon, greeted by health director Andrea Cambieri before being taken in for surgery.
The procedure, led by thoracic surgeon Professor Stefano Margaritora, ran about 90 minutes.
Doctors removed the lower lobe of his right lung. Once they examined the tissue, it confirmed what earlier scans had already pointed toward: lung adenocarcinoma. That’s the most common form of lung cancer in the U.S., making up roughly 40 percent of all cases, according to the Lung Cancer Foundation of America.
The Vatican kept its statement simple: “The surgery was successful, and there were no complications.” Leo woke up normally afterward and, after a short observation period, was moved to his room on the hospital’s 10th floor.
Doctors who spoke with NBC News offered some useful context here. Dr. Bharat, quoted in that report, explained that when doctors skip straight to surgery instead of doing a biopsy first, it can mean the lung scan showed something that warranted more concern, which may be part of why this case moved fairly quickly from detection to operation.
How much this affects Leo’s breathing going forward really depends on how much tissue was removed. Losing a whole lobe, which is what happened here, can cut lung capacity by up to 25 percent, though that varies a lot person to person. Recovery for this kind of surgery usually takes three to four weeks, and doctors noted it tends to run longer for older patients.
The Vatican said Leo’s cleared his public engagements through at least October 20 while he recovers. Even with the diagnosis, officials are saying it shouldn’t affect his planned trip to South America in November, though that could obviously shift depending on how recovery actually goes.
Tokyo Cardinal Kikuchi Tsutomu, who met with Leo the day before he went into the hospital, said something reassuring on this point, that Leo chose to have the surgery now specifically so it wouldn’t get in the way of his future travel. He called the whole situation “not an emergency.”
Leo XIV took office in May 2025, so this diagnosis lands relatively early in his tenure. Since then, he’s made a first foreign trip to Turkey and Lebanon, spoken publicly about AI’s effect on human dignity and labor, and called for peace in both Ukraine and Gaza.
For now, attention turns to recovery. There’s no further update yet beyond confirmation that the surgery went as planned. The next real question is how the coming weeks of healing go, and whether that November trip stays on the calendar.
This is a developing story and will be updated as the Vatican releases further information about the pope’s recovery.
