Pope Leo lung cancer: What is adenocarcinoma, is it life threatening? Vatican offers surgery update, health status

Pope Leo's surgery on Tuesday afternoon to remove a small growth on one of his lungs went well and as expected, the Vatican said in a statement. Leo was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital earlier on Tuesday for the removal of the small nodule, which the pontiff said had been spotted early during a recent check-up. Pope Leo had a lower lobe of his right lung removed during the surgery and was diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma, a common form of lung cancer, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin.

Leo, who is 71-year-old, was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital on Tuesday for surgery to remove a growth on his lung that doctors found in a recent health checkup. Tuesday's surgery lasted about 90 minutes and was successful with no complications, the Vatican said. The pope has woken up normally and is resting in his hospital room.

The Vatican said previously that the pope was expected to spend a week in hospital recovering.


Pope Leo XIV Lung Cancer, Adenocarcinoma

Pope Leo XIV underwent surgery on Tuesday that confirmed that 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. It said the diagnosis had been suspected by preoperative tests and was confirmed during surgery.

The statement made no mention of treatment going forward, and the Vatican said doctors were not currently speaking of chemotherapy or other therapies pending the results of other tests. The Vatican press office noted the medical statement spoke of the “radical” removal of the lobe as an indication that doctors removed all suspect tissue in hopes of removing any lingering traces of the cancer.

Leo's lymph nodes also would have been removed and tested, to determine if the cancer had spread, and there was no word yet on those test results.

Adenocarcinoma is the most common (type of lung cancer), also with the most favorable prognosis, said Dr. Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. “While we know the diagnosis we now need to know the stage."

"We now 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.

If the cancer has spread, more tests will be needed to determine what kind 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.