Pope Leo XIV greets crowd at Vatican, says he will ease back into duties after lung cancer surgery

Pope Leo XIV appeared at a window above St. Peter's Square on Sunday and told thousands of people gathered below that he would return to his work step by step following an operation to take out a cancerous lung tumor, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Surgeons removed part of the 71-year-old pontiff's right lung, its lower lobe, on Tuesday, according to the Inquirer. The newspaper said the procedure confirmed adenocarcinoma, which is the most frequently diagnosed kind of lung cancer, and called it the first significant medical episode since Leo became pope 17 months ago. He is the first American-born pope.

CBS Philadelphia reported that Leo has left the hospital and is now recuperating inside the Vatican. The Inquirer said he was discharged from Gemelli hospital in Rome on Saturday, sooner than doctors had originally planned, and told a reporter as he departed that he felt considerably improved.

During the weekly Angelus prayer, Leo told the crowd, "Now that this delicate phase is behind me, I will gradually resume my activities," the Inquirer reported. At that same Sunday event a week earlier, the newspaper noted, he had announced that doctors found a nodule on his lung and planned to operate.

According to the Inquirer, the pope said his recent experience left him feeling a special closeness to the sick, and he expressed thanks to the medical team at Gemelli. People in the square cheered when he came to the window, and members of an African delegation attending a congress in Rome danced once he finished the blessing, the paper said.

Pilgrims from the U.S. and Italy told the Inquirer they were relieved to see him. A Michigan visitor whose scheduled Mass with the pope was called off during his hospitalization said she was pleased to be praying alongside him this time.

Leo is due to travel to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from Nov. 6 through Nov. 17, a demanding itinerary with roughly 12 flights plus two helicopter journeys into high-altitude areas, according to the Inquirer. Stefano Margaritora, the surgeon who operated on him, told Vatican News on Saturday that "there are no clinical reasons why it should not take place," the Inquirer reported.

Margaritora also told Vatican News he anticipated a full recovery from the surgery within about 10 more days, the newspaper said.

Lab analysis of the tumor and surrounding lymph nodes has not yet been completed, the Inquirer reported. Doctors will use those findings, along with the tumor's genetic and molecular traits, to decide whether Leo requires more treatment. Possibilities named by the newspaper include chemotherapy alone, chemotherapy paired with immunotherapy, or an oral medication aimed at the tumor's specific genetic makeup.

Compiled by True News from reporting by The Philadelphia Inquirer and CBS Philadelphia. Each outlet's original story is linked below.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/217