The 71-year-old pope has begun a gradual return to his duties and hopes to proceed with a planned visit to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from Nov 6 to 17.
Pope Leo holds his first weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square since cancer surgery, at the Vatican, October 21, 2026. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
22 Oct 2026 04:54AM
VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV will not need therapy following an operation last week to remove a cancerous tumour from his lung, his doctors said in a statement released by the Vatican on Wednesday (Oct 21).
Test results showed the 71-year-old's cancer "was localised" and "a subsequent oncological assessment confirmed that no further therapy is required", the statement said.
Leo, who was only elected last year as the first US pope, told followers on Oct 11 that he would be having surgery to remove a nodule.
The operation went ahead on Oct 13 at Rome's Gemelli hospital.
Doctors later revealed the growth was cancerous and they had to remove part of his right lung.
The leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics left hospital on Oct 17 and on Sunday said he would resume his duties "gradually".
He said he wants to go ahead with a long-planned visit to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, where he lived for two decades, on Nov 6-17.
The illness came as a shock for the Catholic Church, and there had been concern that prolonged radiotherapy or chemotherapy could have affected the pope's ability to govern the Church.
Source: AFP/fs