Pope Leo XIV leaves hospital days after lung cancer surgery

Pope Leo XIV left Rome's Gemelli Hospital on Saturday afternoon and returned to the Vatican after doctors said he was well enough to be discharged following surgery that removed part of his right lung.

The Vatican press office released a statement outlining details from Dr. Luigi Carbone,the Pope's personal physician, and Professor Stefano Margaritora, Gemelli's chief of thoracic surgery who led the team that operated on Leo. The two doctors said the pope had undergone blood tests and a chest X-ray that morning, with the results confirming his clinical condition meant he could leave hospital.

They said he was expected to lead the Angelus prayer from the window of the papal apartment on Sunday.Video showed Leo waving to well-wishers outside the hospital as he walked out without physical support, flanked by officials and security guards in dark suits.

Before leaving, the pope had celebrated Mass in a room set aside for that purpose on the hospital's 10th floor, according to the press office.

Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said "the estimated post-operative recovery time will be about one week." Leo's discharge came on his fifth day in hospital and was sooner than had been expected at the time of the operation's announcement.

A diagnosis made public

Leo, 71, had told crowds in St. Peter's Square last Sunday that doctors had discovered a "localized nodule" in his lung at a "very early stage."

"Following their advice, I have therefore decided to undergo an operation to remove it," he said.

The surgery on Tuesday went further than the nodule, however, with surgeons using a video-assisted technique to remove the lower lobe of the pope's right lung in an operation that lasted about 90 minutes. His doctors said lung tissue examined afterward confirmed a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma. With adenocarcinoma making up about 40% of all lung cancers in the U.S., it is the nation's most common form of lung cancer, according to the Lung Cancer Foundation of America.

That is true among nonsmokers too, according to Dr. Otis Brawley, an oncologist at Johns Hopkins University and former chief medical and scientific officer of the American Cancer Society.

Leo is not known to have smoked, but cancer does run in his family. His mother, Mildred, died of cancer in 1990, and on Tuesday the Vatican announced that his older brother Louis, who lives in Florida, has been hospitalized with a form of cancer.

Encouraging signs

Doctors not involved in the pope's care say the treatment so far points to a cancer that has been caught early.

"The fact that surgery was the first tool that they utilized is a really good sign," Dr. Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist and board member of the American Lung Association, told NPR. "It suggests that they think this is early stage."

Gupta said the fact that doctors removed a larger portion of the lung than first announced is not in itself a bad sign. "People have parts of their lungs removed all the time for all sorts of reasons, and they recover just fine," he said. "And in his case, he's pretty robust at baseline from a health standpoint."

Leo still exercises regularly, playing tennis each week with his personal secretary and riding horses at Castel Gandolfo, the papal retreat to the south of Rome.

The Vatican has not announced any further treatment.

Travels ahead

Leo's office has cleared his public schedule until at least Oct. 20. His next major international trip, set for early November, includes Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, where he lived on and off for two decades and holds citizenship.

"He had a minimally invasive surgery," said Dr. Jonathan Villena Vargas, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. "Because we do this all the time, most patients are allowed to travel about two weeks after the surgery."

Brawley from Johns Hopkins agreed. "I think he can do it," he said, adding that patients in good physical shape who have this type of procedure "very frequently are back to normal in seven to 10 days."