Pope Leo is eating and recovering after cancer surgery, his doctors say

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV was eating regularly Wednesday and began walking and doing respiratory exercises, and his post-operative tests are normal following surgery to remove a cancerous mass from his lung, the Vatican said.

Leo’s two doctors, Dr. Luigi Carbone and thoracic surgeon Dr. Stefano Margaritora, provided a medical update on Wednesday. Blood tests and a chest x-ray confirmed a normal post-operative recovery, with levels within the norm, they said.

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“The Holy Father underwent respiratory physiotherapy and has begun walking in his room. He resumed his regular diet and had breakfast and lunch,” they reported. “Recovery is proceeding as planned.”

Tuesday’s surgery showed the 71-year-old pope has the most common type of lung cancer, known as lung adenocarcinoma. Experts said further tests are needed to know if the disease has spread and if more treatment is needed, but those test results weren’t yet available on Wednesday.

The revelation of the diagnosis — within a few hours of an operation that was announced by Leo himself — offered further evidence that the American pontiff is taking a new approach to communicating about his health.

The Vatican said the surgery lasted approximately 90 minutes and was successful, with no complications.

Doctors were waiting for the results of further tests before deciding on a course of treatment, the Vatican said. The press office pointed to the medical statement’s mention of the “radical” removal of the lobe as an indication that doctors took out all suspect tissue in hopes of removing any lingering traces of the cancer.

The right lung has three sections or lobes while the left has two. After one lobe is removed, the rest of the lung can gradually compensate, especially in otherwise healthy and physically active people. Leo is known to be sporty, with weekly tennis games and swimming.

Experts said some of Leo’s lymph nodes also would have been removed and tested to determine if the cancer had spread. There was no word yet on those test results.

If the cancer has spread, tests will determine what kind of therapy to pursue, said Dr. Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Options include chemotherapy, a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy or targeted therapy, which involves pills for specific cancers.

Liu, who is not involved in the pope’s care, said adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer, and also has the most favorable prognosis.

“While we know the diagnosis, we now need to know the stage,” Liu said. “We now need to know how big it is, how many spots in the lung are involved. Is it just one nodule, or more than one, and the lymph nodes, are they cancerous?”

Dr. PierCarlo Gentile, head of radiation oncology at the San Pietro Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Rome, said the kind of video-assisted minimally invasive chest surgery the pope underwent could allow him to be back on his feet within 48 to 72 hours. Recovery from the surgery itself takes 15 to 20 days. Post-op complications, including infections, are rare, he said.

The pope is breaking with a tradition of secrecy surrounding health issues

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 nodule, or growth, on his lung during his Sunday noon prayer, announcing it to the world on live television almost as an aside at the end of his blessing.

“That was truly a revolution. It was like he was reading a medical bulletin himself,” said Giovanni Maria Vian, a church historian and the former editor-in-chief of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.

The Vatican has long been secretive about the health of popes and tightly controlled any such information — a practice encapsulated in the popular Italian saying, “ The pope is fine until he’s dead.”

St. John XXIII died in 1963, nearly a year after doctors diagnosed stomach cancer that was kept hidden at the time. St. John Paul II died in 2005 after suffering for years from the obvious effects of Parkinson’s disease that the Vatican only confirmed after he died.

Pope Francis seemed more up front about his health problems, giving an Argentine doctor a tell-all interview for a book about his physical and mental health. But in the end Francis, too, tightly controlled the information that was released in his dying months.

Vian, who was part of the Vatican communications team from 2007 to 2018, said the Vatican’s obsession with secrecy about the pope’s health was due to both practical and cultural considerations. He noted the Vatican is a 2,000-year-old institution that is culturally European — and Europeans tend to be more guarded about health problems than people in the United States.

“In theory, the pope has an absolute power, so you can understand that there are many people who would aspire to that absolute power,” he said. Secrecy about a pope’s health, therefore “is a legitimate defense of both the pope in question and the institution itself.”

That said, Leo didn’t share everything he knew on Sunday: Tuesday’s medical bulletin said doctors had suspected cancer based on tests, a suspicion that was confirmed in surgery.

The pope has a trip to South America planned for November

The Vatican on Monday canceled all Leo’s audiences through Oct. 20. But there was no word on whether he would be able to keep his planned trip to South America next month.

Oncology surgeons often advise patients not to fly for three weeks after surgery — which would give the pope just enough time to make his planned Nov. 6-17 trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. But whether he can go will depend on his recovery.

The current itinerary for the trip is ambitious and the longest of his papacy to date, calling for Leo to clock just over 31,000 kilometers (19,000 miles) on a dozen flights and two helicopter rides, and a significant altitude change in Peru.

“If it is stage 1, he can complete these trips. If more treatment is needed, I would likely advise against the trips,” said Liu.