Pope Leo diagnosed with lung cancer after surgery

Pope Leo XIV has lung cancer, the Vatican said Oct. 13, after surgeons at Rome’s Gemelli hospital removed the lower lobe of his right lung and tests confirmed an adenocarcinoma.

The 71-year-old pope was in the operating room for about three hours, and the procedure itself took about 90 minutes, OSV News reported. He is expected to recover in hospital for about a week, and all of his audiences are cancelled through Oct. 20. His longest foreign trip as pope, to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, is scheduled for Nov. 6 to 17.

A joint statement from the surgeons, Dr. Stefano Margaritora and Dr. Luigi Carbone, said the examination “confirmed the diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, as suspected by the preoperative tests,” OSV News reported. The statement was released just before 10 p.m. Rome time.

The Holy See press office said earlier in the evening that the operation “was successful, and there were no complications,” Al Jazeera reported. It said the pope woke as expected and returned to his room on the 10th floor of the hospital. He was admitted at 1 p.m. Rome time.

Margaritora, the chief thoracic surgeon at Gemelli, led the team using a video-assisted technique, OSV News reported. Al Jazeera, citing the Holy See press office, reported that the word “radical” in the medical statement indicates doctors removed all suspect tissue to eliminate any lingering traces of the cancer. The Vatican said doctors are not currently discussing chemotherapy or other therapies pending the results of other tests, Al Jazeera reported.

Leo first disclosed the problem on Oct. 11 at the end of his Sunday Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square, when he said doctors had found a lung nodule. He described it as found “at a very early stage” and “well-contained,” OSV News reported, and said he decided on the doctors’ advice to have it removed. Canada News Media reported on the planned surgery on Oct. 12.

Cardinal Isao Kikuchi, the archbishop of Tokyo, met the pope privately on Oct. 12 and wrote on social media that Leo wanted the operation done quickly so he could recover before the trip, OSV News reported.

Al Jazeera reported that the pope has no reported history of serious illness and routinely swims and plays tennis. According to a biography by Elise Ann Allen, cited by OSV News, this is his second hospitalization. The first was for typhoid fever in Peru in 1985.

Peru is one of the three stops on the November trip. Al Jazeera reported the itinerary includes about a dozen flights, two helicopter rides and significant altitude changes in Peru, and said it is unclear whether his recovery will affect the plans. The pope told reporters on Sunday that he intends to make the trip. OSV News said the Vatican has not announced any changes.

Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, led a rosary for the pope’s healing in the Gemelli chapel on Tuesday evening, and the chapel was overflowing, OSV News reported. Prime ministers, presidents, religious leaders and Catholic bishops have sent messages of support from around the world, it said.

Canada News Media did not find a statement from the Canadian government or Canadian bishops in the reports it read. The pope has a recent Canadian link: Canada News Media reported in November 2025 that Indigenous artifacts held at the Vatican were being returned to Canada as a gift from Leo.

What happens next depends on the results of the remaining tests, which the Vatican has said will determine whether further treatment is needed. His audiences remain cancelled through Oct. 20, and the Vatican has not yet said whether the South America trip will go ahead as planned. Canada News Media did not read the Vatican’s medical bulletin itself, so the details above are as reported by OSV News and Al Jazeera, which drew on the Vatican statements.

Photo: File photo of Pope Leo XIV at the Abbey of Santa Maria de Montserrat in Spain on June 10, 2026, by Sergio López Prieto, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. It was not taken at the hospital.

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Via OSV News and Al Jazeera (with AP).