Pope Leo XIV walking and eating after lung cancer surgery, doctors say

Pope Leo XIV is up and walking and has gone back to eating normally following an operation to take out part of his right lung, where cancer was found, according to a Vatican medical update issued Wednesday.

The 71-year-old pontiff had the procedure, which lasted about an hour and a half, on Tuesday afternoon at Gemelli Hospital in Rome. BBC News and PBS NewsHour reported that the Vatican called the surgery a success and said there were no complications.

Examination of the tissue confirmed lung adenocarcinoma, the most widespread type of lung cancer, as earlier tests had indicated. In an Associated Press report carried by PBS NewsHour, the pope's two physicians, Luigi Carbone and surgeon Stefano Margaritora, said his blood work and chest X-ray were normal and that he had completed breathing exercises. "Recovery is proceeding as planned," the physicians said, according to PBS NewsHour.

Surgeons took out the whole lower lobe, a step the Vatican described as making the operation "radical." PBS NewsHour reported that the press office framed this as evidence that all suspicious tissue had been cleared. According to BBC News, a Vatican source told AFP that additional testing was done to check whether the disease had spread. Those results had not come back as of Wednesday, PBS NewsHour said, and any further treatment decisions await them.

BBC News reported that Leo is likely to remain hospitalized for roughly a week. The Vatican has stated he had no symptoms ahead of the surgery.

The pope himself revealed the lung nodule at his Sunday prayer in St. Peter's Square, saying it had been caught early and was contained. PBS NewsHour described the rapid disclosure as a break from the Vatican's historic secrecy on papal health, while noting that on Sunday Leo did not say doctors already suspected cancer.

Dr. Stephen Liu, a lung cancer specialist at Georgetown University who is not treating the pope, told the AP that doctors still must establish the cancer's stage. Should it have spread, he said, possible treatments include chemotherapy, immunotherapy or targeted drugs.

All of the pope's audiences until Oct. 20 have been called off, PBS NewsHour reported. The Vatican has not indicated whether his South America tour, scheduled for Nov. 6 to 17 with stops in Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, will proceed. It would be the longest trip of his 17-month papacy. "If it is stage 1, he can complete these trips," Liu said, though he added he would probably recommend against travel if more treatment is needed.

According to BBC News, Leo's predecessor, Pope Francis, who died last year, also lost part of a lung in his youth.

Compiled by True News from reporting by BBC News and PBS NewsHour. Each outlet's original story is linked below.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/121