Pope undergoes surgery to remove part of right lung... Confirmation of lung cancer diagnosis

90-minute thoracoscopic surgery at Rome University Hospital… Vatican: "Wake up normally"

Medical staff "surgery was successful... biopsy results confirmed lung adenocarcinoma as expected"

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Ji-heon = Pope Leo

According to reports and Vatican announcements, the Pope stayed in the operating room for three hours this afternoon at the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital in Rome, Italy, and underwent chest surgery. The surgery itself lasted about 90 minutes.

The Vatican added that the Pope woke up normally after the surgery.

In a statement issued after the surgery, the medical staff, including Professor Stefano Margaritora, who led the surgery, said, "The lower lobe of the right lung was resected using a thoracoscope for radical surgery (surgery performed for the purpose of cure)."

He continued, “The diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma was confirmed in the biopsy performed during surgery,” and “This was expected in the pre-operative examination.”

The medical staff said, “The surgery was successful and there were no complications.”

Lung adenocarcinoma refers to cases where cancer cells arise from lung cells that have the function of secreting body fluids. Lung adenocarcinoma accounts for approximately 40% of all lung cancers, and it is known that the proportion of adenocarcinoma in non-smokers who develop lung cancer is high.

Medical experts believe that to assess the Pope's condition, they need to know the size of the tumor removed and whether it has spread to the lymph nodes. The Vatican has not yet released any specific information regarding this.

Dr. Stephen Liu, a hematologist and oncologist at Georgetown University Hospital in the U.S., explained to Reuters, "A diagnosis has been made, but the stage of the cancer is still unknown. If the lung cancer is small and has not metastasized to the lymph nodes, there is a high possibility that it can be cured through surgery alone. However, if the final analysis shows that the cancer has spread more widely, this suggests a poor prognosis."

The Vatican previously announced that all official meetings scheduled with the Pope until the 20th were canceled due to this surgery.

Leo XIV, now 71 years old, is considered to have become pope at a relatively younger age than his predecessors. It is known that he enjoys sports such as tennis and has no special medical history.

Gemelli Hospital is a non-profit Catholic teaching hospital with special accommodation and a chapel for the Pope on the 10th floor of the hospital. This hospital was nicknamed the ‘Third Vatican’ because Pope St. John Paul II spent a long time there in the past.