The Pope has lung cancer and had the lower lobe of his right lung removed during surgery in Rome, the Vatican has said.
The tests confirmed a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin, after Leo XIV had an operation on Tuesday.
It said the diagnosis had been suspected by preoperative tests and was confirmed during the operation.
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The 71-year-old was in the operating theatre for about three hours, the statement said.
The surgery itself lasted approximately 90 minutes.
“The surgery was successful, and there were no complications,” the statement added.
Leo XIV returned to his room after the surgery at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, according to a statement from the Vatican spokesman.
Leo had walked into Rome’s Gemelli hospital through the main entrance earlier in the day and waved to dozens of well-wishers who had gathered to greet him.
The Vatican announced the timing of the surgery after Leo was seen leaving the Vatican in a convoy of vehicles headed for Gemelli hospital, about nine kilometers (5.6 miles) north of the Vatican.
The Vatican has said his recovery is expected to take about a week. All his public events have been cancelled until October 20.
Leo, elected by the world’s cardinals in May 2025, is relatively young for a Church leader. He enjoys sports, including tennis, and is not known to be a smoker or to have had health issues previously.
A nodule on the lung is a small, localised lesion that can be benign. The American Thoracic Society says fewer than 5pc of lung nodules overall prove cancerous, although risk rises with age, size, and other factors such as smoking.
Dr. Federico Venuto, chief of thoracic surgery at Rome’s Policlinico Umberto I hospital, said procedures to remove lung nodules are usually minimally invasive, and can sometimes involve use of a thin camera tube called a thoracoscope.
“The complication rate is extremely low,” he told Reuters.
The late Pope Francis, Leo’s predecessor, died at age 88 in April 2025 and was hospitalised several times as he grew frail in his later years.
Leo, who spoke in a firm, clear voice at his only public event on Monday, keeps a very busy schedule. He is due to make an 11-day tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from November 6 to 17.
In the same address on Sunday when the pope announced his need for surgery, he pledged he would go forward with the trip.