NewzThe surgery showed that the pope has the most common type of lung cancer, known as lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin late on Tuesday. ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV spent a peaceful night in Rome’s Gemelli hospital after doctors removed the lower lobe of his right lung and confirmed he has cancer, the Vatican said Wednesday.The surgery showed that the pope has the most common type of lung cancer, known as lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin late Tuesday. The revelation — within a few hours of an operation that was announced by Leo himself — offered further evidence that the American pontiff is taking a new approach to communicating about his health.Doctors were waiting for the results of further tests before deciding on a course of treatment, the Vatican said.
The press office pointed to the medical statement’s mention of the “radical” removal of the lobe as an indication that doctors took out all suspect tissue in hopes of removing any lingering traces of the cancer.Experts said some of Leo’s lymph nodes also would have been removed and tested to determine if the cancer had spread. There was no word yet on those test results.If the cancer has spread, more tests will be needed to determine what kind of therapy to pursue, said Dr. Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Options include chemotherapy, a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy or targeted therapy, which involves pills for specific cancers.“Adenocarcinoma is the most common (type of lung cancer), also with the most favorable prognosis,” said Liu, who is not involved in the pope’s care. “While we know the diagnosis, we now need to know the stage.”He added: “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?”The pope is breaking with a tradition of secrecy surrounding health issuesThe American pontiff has offered a rare level of transparency about the first publicly disclosed major health problem of his 17-month papacy.
He revealed the discovery of the nodule, or growth, on his lung during his Sunday noon prayer, announcing it to the world on live television almost as an aside at the end of his blessing.“That was truly a revolution. It was like he was reading a medical bulletin himself,” said Giovanni Maria Vian, a church historian and the former editor-in-chief of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.The Vatican has long been secretive about the … Pope Leo XIV has been diagnosed with lung cancer and underwent surgery.
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