Pope Leo diagnosed with lung cancer as growth removed during surgery

Pope Leo has lung cancer, the Vatican said late on Tuesday.

Leo, 71, underwent an operation and had the lower lobe of his right lung removed, with tests confirming a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin, which followed an earlier statement saying the pope’s operation had concluded “successfully, on schedule and as planned”.

The Vatican added that the diagnosis had been suspected by preoperative tests and was confirmed during surgery.

Leo was in the operating theatre for about the hours and the operation itself approximately 90 minutes.

In a rare moment of Vatican transparency, Leo, said during his angelus prayer on Sunday that doctors had found a small nodule on his lung during a checkup, adding that it was “well-contained” and detected early.

“The doctors believe it would be right to intervene and so, following their advice, I have decided to have the operation to remove it,” he said to the crowds gathered in St Peter’s Square.

Leo, who in May last year became the first US-born leader of the Roman Catholic church, is being treated in Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where a large crowd greeted his arrival earlier on Tuesday.

The Vatican said that Leo had “now returned to his room” following the operation.

All of his appointments have been cancelled until 20 October.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said he had seen Leo on Monday night. “We spoke with great serenity,” Parolin told Rai News. “He is truly a great example. The announcement came like a bolt out of the blue, nobody expected it. Thank God it was detected immediately, so the operation could take place immediately. Normally, when these things are caught in time, they can be resolved.”

Leo is staying in the 10th-floor private-patient wing but not in the papal suite, which is being renovated.

The Chicago-born pope, who enjoys sports, especially playing tennis, is generally believed to be in good health. He often makes use of the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo, close to Rome.

Leo travelled to France on a papal visit in September and is scheduled to go to South America in November for a 12-day trip covering 10 cities.

The weekly papal audience on Wednesday will be led by Luis Antonio Tagle, a cardinal from the Philippines who last week was elected dean of the college of cardinals – the authority that presides over papal conclaves.

The Gemelli, located in the north-west of the Italian capital, is renowned for treating reigning popes. Pope John Paul II stayed there so many times that the Vatican worked with the hospital to establish the high-security papal suite.

Leo’s predecessor, Francis, spent more than five weeks in the hospital, being treated for bronchitis, which developed into bilateral pneumonia. He died at home in Casa Santa Marta in Vatican City on 21 April 2025, just under a month after being discharged.