Doctors Clear Pope Leo of Further Cancer Care
The Holy See’s Oct. 21 bulletin says tests after the Oct. 13 lobectomy show localized disease and no further treatment is needed.
On Oct. 21, the Holy See released a medical bulletin stating that final histological and molecular tests on Pope Leo XIV have confirmed localized disease, with no further treatment necessary. The assessment was issued by Dr. Luigi Carbone and Prof. Stefano Margaritora, eight days after the public disclosure of the diagnosis and roughly eighteen months into his pontificate.
That same day the Holy Father held his general audience, continuing the gradual return to public duties he began after leaving the hospital.
From early detection to clearance
Pope Leo XIV first spoke of the condition at the Angelus on Oct. 11, describing a localized nodule found at a very early stage during routine checks and announcing planned surgery. On Oct. 13 at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, a surgical team led by Prof. Margaritora carried out a video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy, removing the lower lobe of the right lung. The procedure lasted about ninety minutes, with roughly three hours total in the operating room and no complications. Preoperative robotic bronchoscopy and CT imaging had indicated the need for the intervention.
Histopathology identified lung adenocarcinoma. The pope’s first night after surgery was peaceful; he soon resumed eating, walking, and physiotherapy, and concelebrated Mass between Oct. 14 and 16. Blood tests and a chest X-ray on Oct. 17 confirmed he was fit for discharge that afternoon, sooner than the week-long stay initially expected.
Discharged on Oct. 17, he led the Angelus the following day, thanking the Gemelli staff and the faithful for their prayers and saying he would resume his duties gradually. In the same period he spoke by phone with Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, urging a cease-fire in Ukraine.
A papacy marked by mission and recovery
Born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago on Sept. 14, 1955, Pope Leo XIV is the first American-born and first Augustinian pope, elected on May 8, 2025. A dual U.S.-Peruvian citizen, he previously served as a missionary in Peru and as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. Both of his parents had histories of cancer: his mother, Mildred, died in 1990 at age 78; his father, Louis, died in 1997 of colon cancer and heart disease.
The Oct. 21 bulletin closes the acute medical chapter opened ten days earlier. With disease confined and no adjuvant therapy required, the Holy Father continues to take up the ordinary rhythm of the See of Peter, sustained by the prayers of the universal Church.