Pope Leo's lung nodule surgery completed successfully, Vatican says

Pope Leo XIV underwent a successful surgery Tuesday to remove a lung nodule, according to the Vatican.

"The procedure was completed successfully, within the expected timeframe and as planned, and the Holy Father has returned to his room," the Holy See Press Office said. The office promised further information at a later time.

The 71-year-old Leo had walked into Rome's Gemelli hospital through the main entrance earlier Tuesday and waved to dozens of well-wishers who had gathered to greet him. The Vatican said the surgery would be performed by a team led by Gemelli's chief thoracic surgeon, Dr. Stefano Margaritora.

The operation got underway as medical staff recited the Rosary prayer in the hospital chapel Tuesday evening. "Let us join together in prayer, asking the Lord to sustain our bishop, Pope Leo, and to comfort all those who are hospitalized here," said the Vicar of Rome, Cardinal Baldassare Reina, at the start of the prayer.

The 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 small, localized nodule during his Sunday noon prayer and announced that he would have it removed.

The nodule was discovered during regular checks, the Vatican has said. It is not known if it is cancerous. In most cases, this kind of lung nodule is benign, doctors say. 

Oncologists say even if the nodule turns out to be cancerous, Leo's prognosis is "excellent" since it will have been removed at an early stage.

The surgery, which is fairly low risk and usually performed under general anesthesia, will require a weeklong hospital stay and the Vatican on Monday canceled all Leo's audiences through Oct. 20.

"These are things that can be treated very well, if the words he used reflect the clinical situation," said Dr. Lorenzo Spaggiari, director of thoracic surgery at the European Institute of Oncology, or EIO, in Milan, who is not involved in the pope's care but knows the team at Gemelli.

The procedure comes just weeks before Leo is scheduled to take a trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru at the beginning of November. Doctors typically suggest about three weeks to recover without any flying.

The current itinerary for the trip is ambitious and the longest of his papacy to date, calling for Leo to clock just over 19,000 miles on a dozen flights and two helicopter rides, and a significant altitude change in Peru.

"He has decided to undergo surgery soon in order to not change his plans for future overseas trips, so there is no need to worry, as it is not an emergency," said Tokyo Cardinal Kikuchi Tsutomu, who saw Leo on Monday.

A lung nodule is a small abnormal area measuring less than 1.2 inches that sometimes appears on a CT scan of the chest or abdomen. Often, the scans are done to investigate trauma or a lung infection, unrelated to a lung cancer screening. A nodule can be benign or malignant, and often surgical removal is recommended both to establish whether it is cancer and to treat a malignancy while it is still localized.