Pope Leo XIV underwent surgery Tuesday that confirmed he has lung cancer and doctors removed the lower lobe of his right lung, the Vatican said. Tests confirmed a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin after the surgery. He said the diagnosis had been suspected through preoperative testing and was confirmed during surgery. The statement made no mention of future treatment, and the Vatican said doctors were not currently discussing chemotherapy or other therapies pending the results of other tests. The Vatican press office noted that the medical statement spoke of the “radical” removal of the lobe as an indication that doctors removed all suspicious tissue in the hope of eliminating any lingering traces of the cancer. Leo’s lymph nodes would also have been removed and tested to determine if the cancer had spread, and there was no information yet on the results of those tests. “Adenocarcinoma is the most common (type of lung cancer) and also the one with the most favorable prognosis,” said Dr. Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. “While we know the diagnosis, now we need to know the stage.” “Now we need to know how big it is, how many spots in the lung are involved. Is it just one nodule, or more than one, and the lymph nodes, are they cancerous?” Liu said. Get the latest national news Get the latest Canadian news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you don’t miss any breaking news. If the cancer has spread, more tests will be needed to determine what type of therapy to pursue, he said. Options include chemotherapy, a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, or targeted therapy, which involves oral pills for specific cancers. The Vatican says the surgery was successful. The 71-year-old man was in the operating room for about three hours, according to the statement. The surgery itself lasted approximately 90 minutes. “The surgery was successful and there were no complications,” the statement said, adding that the Pope later returned to his room. Leo had entered Rome’s Gemelli hospital through the main entrance earlier that day and greeted dozens of well-wishers who had gathered to greet him. The Vatican said the surgery would be performed by a team led by Gemelli’s chief thoracic surgeon, Dr. Stefano Margaritora. The American pontiff has offered a rare level of transparency about the first major health problem publicly revealed during his 17-month papacy. He revealed the discovery of the localized nodule during his Sunday noon prayer and announced that he would remove it. Oncologists said before the operation that even if the nodule proved cancerous, Leo’s prognosis would be “excellent” as it would have been removed at an early stage. The Vatican on Monday canceled all of Leo’s audiences until October 20. While Gemelli has a specific papal apartment that previous popes have used, complete with a private chapel on the 10th floor, Leo will be staying in a room nearby, as the papal apartment is being renovated, according to the Vatican press office. The recovery could allow travel to South America in November. It was not known whether Leo would be able to keep his planned trip to South America next month. More on trends More videos Story continues below advertising Oncologists often advise patients not to fly for three weeks after surgery, which would give the Pope just the window needed to make his planned Nov. 6-17 trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, depending on his recovery. The current itinerary for the trip is ambitious and the longest of his papacy to date, requiring Leo to cover just over 31,000 kilometers (19,000 miles) in a dozen flights and two helicopter rides, and a significant change in altitude in Peru. “He has decided to have surgery soon so as not to change his plans for future trips abroad, so there is no need to worry as it is not an emergency,” said Tokyo Cardinal Kikuchi Tsutomu, who saw Leo on Monday. A lung nodule is a small abnormal area measuring less than 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) that sometimes shows up on a CT scan of the chest or abdomen. Scans are often done to investigate lung trauma or infection, which are not related to a lung cancer screening test. A nodule can be benign or malignant, and surgical removal is often recommended to establish whether it is cancer and to treat a malignancy while it is still localized. Pope was hospitalized for typhoid fever in 1985. This is believed to be the second hospitalization for Leo, who is known for being athletic and in good shape, with weekly tennis and swimming matches. Story continues below advertisement As a young missionary priest, he contracted typhoid fever in 1985, shortly after arriving in Chulucanas, Peru. The illness and hospitalization were a cathartic moment for him to decide to stay in the poverty and discomfort of Peru after living in relative comfort in Rome, a decision that ultimately paved the way to his papacy, according to an interview Leo gave to Elise Ann Allen in 2025 for “Pope Leo XIV: The Biography.” According to the book, Leo said he prayed to God to let him die rather than suffer the “horrible” pain of the fever. “They hooked me up to an IV and I said, ‘If this is your sense of humor, Lord, I think you could do a little better.’ “Obviously, I survived; I recovered, but it turned out to be a very significant moment for me, because it was like, ‘Well, you’re over the illness; You see what the needs are here: the order, the Augustinians, the church are telling you: ‘We need you here; Go for it.’ I never looked back.”—Barry reported from Milan © 2026 The Canadian Press