Pope Leo's lung nodule surgery went well, says Vatican

VATICAN CITY —Pope Leo's surgery on Tuesday afternoon to remove a small growth on one of his lungs went well and as expected, the Vatican said in a statement.

Leo, 71, was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital earlier on Tuesday for the removal of the small nodule, which the pontiff said had been spotted early during a recent check-up.

The Vatican press office has said the pope's recovery is expected to take about a week.

Leo, elected pope 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 5% 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 surgeries 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.—Reuters