Pope Leo Diagnosed With Lung Cancer After Successful Surgery in Rome

Pope Leo XIV has lung cancer, the Vatican said late on Tuesday, after surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung in an operation it described as successful, on schedule and as planned. According to the Guardian, the 71-year-old pontiff was diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma, a common form of the disease, following the procedure at Rome's Gemelli hospital.

The BBC reported that the surgery went well and as expected. France 24, citing the Vatican, said the operation lasted about 90 minutes and that the pope woke up normally afterwards, with the Vatican expecting a recovery of roughly one week.

A Vatican source told France 24 that further tests were being carried out to determine whether the cancer had spread. The bulletin, as carried by Al Jazeera and CBS News, said the lower lobe was removed to ensure the procedure was radical. Le Monde reported that Leo had entered Gemelli as scheduled earlier on Tuesday afternoon, and that the Vatican had indicated a recovery period of about a week.

This was the pontiff's first hospitalisation since he became pope in May 2025, France 24 noted. CBS News described him as the first American pope and carried medical analysis from a thoracic surgeon on what the diagnosis means. The New York Times reported that surgeons removed the lower lobe after finding a cancerous nodule.

The Guardian's earlier reporting traced the sequence: on Sunday the pope said a nodular lesion had been found at an early stage during recent medical checks and that surgery would follow in the coming days. By Tuesday evening the Vatican had confirmed the cancer diagnosis. Across the foreign coverage, the emphasis has been on the early detection and the stated success of the operation rather than on any prognosis, which the Vatican has not given.

La Veduta reports Italy as the foreign press reports it. From Emilia-Romagna, the story is followed as a national one: the wires carry no regional detail, and this dispatch adds none. What the foreign coverage establishes is a hospitalisation in Rome, a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, a successful operation and a recovery expected to take about a week. Further tests, the Vatican source said, are pending.