Pope Leo XIV Cleared to Leave Hospital After Lung Cancer Surgery
Pope Leo XIV's doctors judged him fit to be discharged from Rome's Gemelli Hospital, where surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung and confirmed lung adenocarcinoma. The Holy See Press Office said he would return to the Vatican in the early afternoon and lead the Angelus prayer the next day.
Pope Leo XIV's doctors have cleared him to leave Gemelli Hospital in Rome after lung surgery there, and the Holy See Press Office said he would return to the Vatican in the early afternoon.
His doctors, Dr. Luigi Carbone, head of the Vatican City State's health department, and Professor Stefano Margaritora, chief of thoracic surgery at Gemelli, said blood tests and a chest X-ray in the morning showed his condition allows him to leave. The press office said he would celebrate Mass in the hospital before leaving and would lead the Angelus, the traditional Sunday noon prayer, from the window of the papal apartment on Sunday, October 18.
The operation took place on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 13. Surgeons removed the lower lobe, the bottom section, of his right lung using a video-assisted technique, in which the surgeon works through small openings guided by a camera. Tissue examined during the operation confirmed lung adenocarcinoma, a type of lung cancer, as earlier tests had suspected. The doctors said the operation lasted about 90 minutes, was successful and had no complications.
The pope, 71, announced the operation himself after the Angelus the Sunday before, saying doctors had found a nodule on his lung.
Rome — Pope Leo XIV's doctors judged him fit to be discharged from Gemelli Hospital, and the Holy See Press Office said he would leave in the early afternoon and return to the Vatican, after five days in the hospital for lung surgery.
The discharge
In a statement released by the press office on Saturday morning, the pope's doctors said his blood tests and a chest X-ray done that morning, together with his overall clinical picture, showed he was fit to leave the hospital. The doctors are Dr. Luigi Carbone, director of health and hygiene for Vatican City State, and Professor Stefano Margaritora, head of the thoracic surgery team at Gemelli.
"Following the doctors' assessment this morning, Pope Leo XIV will be discharged today from Gemelli Hospital, where he was hospitalized for surgery on his right lung," a separate press office statement said. "He will leave the hospital in the early afternoon and return to the Vatican. Tomorrow, he will lead the Angelus prayer from the window of the papal apartment." The Angelus is a short prayer that popes traditionally lead at noon on Sundays for people gathered in St. Peter's Square. Before leaving, the press office said, the pope would celebrate Mass in a room set aside for that purpose on the hospital's 10th floor, where he had been staying.
The surgery
The pope announced the operation himself from St. Peter's Square after leading the Angelus on Sunday, October 11, saying that during recent checkups doctors had found a nodule on his lung, at a very early stage and well localized, and had advised removing it. He was admitted to Gemelli on Tuesday, October 13, and had the surgery that afternoon, as planned.
In a bulletin that evening, Carbone and Margaritora said that "to ensure a radical resection," meaning the complete removal of the diseased tissue, "the lower lobe of the right lung was removed using a video-assisted technique." A lobe is one section of a lung; video-assisted surgery is done through small incisions guided by a camera. "An intraoperative histological examination," a laboratory check of tissue done during the operation, "confirmed the diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, as suspected from the preoperative examinations," the doctors said. Adenocarcinoma is a type of lung cancer.
The pope was in the operating room for about three hours, and the operation itself took about 90 minutes. The doctors said it was successful and there were no complications, and that he woke normally and returned to his room after a short period of observation. The press office said the next morning that he had passed a calm night, and that further examinations would be done on the removed tissue in the following days. Leo XIV is 71, and his public schedule had already been cleared until October 20. The Vatican has not given any information on further treatment.