Pope Leo has been diagnosed with lung cancer after surgeons removed part of his right lung, the Vatican said on Tuesday, in the first major health setback of his pontificate.
The 71-year-old pope has lung adenocarcinoma, with tissue tests carried out during the operation confirming what doctors had suspected from earlier examinations, according to a Vatican medical bulletin.
Leo was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Tuesday for surgery to remove a growth discovered during a recent routine health check.
His lead surgeon, Dr Stefano Margaritora, and personal physician, Dr Luigi Carbone, said the procedure lasted about 90 minutes and was completed without complications.
“In order to make the procedure curative, the lower lobe of the right lung was removed using a video-assisted technique,” they said.
The Vatican has not provided details on the size of the tumour or whether the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes.
Dr Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown University and division chief of hematology-oncology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, said those details would be needed to determine the stage of the disease and assess the pope’s prognosis.
“While we have the diagnosis, we do not yet have the stage. This is critical to prognosis and treatment,” Liu said.
He added that if the cancer is small and has not spread to the lymph nodes, surgery itself could be curative, while a greater extent of cancer involvement could indicate a poorer prognosis.
The Vatican said Leo regained consciousness normally after the operation and returned to his hospital room, where he was resting.
He is expected to remain at the hospital for about a week, and his public events have been cancelled until 20 October.
Leo left the Vatican shortly before 1 pm local time and travelled to the Gemelli hospital, about nine kilometres away. He was seen waving from the back of a black SUV as his convoy made its way through Rome.
Upon arrival, the pope greeted officials and well-wishers before entering the hospital.
It was not immediately clear whether Leo’s planned 11-day visit to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from November 6 to 17 would go ahead.
Leo was elected pope by the world’s cardinals in May 2025. He is 71 and enjoys sports, including tennis, and is not known to be a smoker or to have had recent health problems.
His predecessor, Pope Francis, was hospitalised several times during his final years and died aged 88 in April 2025.
Leo was born in Chicago in 1955 as Robert Prevost and spent decades as a missionary and Bishop in Peru.
In 1985, he was hospitalised in Chulucanas, Peru, after contracting typhoid fever. He later recalled the experience in an interview published in a book by Penguin Peru.
Leo said the illness was so painful that he asked God to let him die, but later viewed his recovery as a sign that he still had a purpose.
“I never looked back,” he said.
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