From Deacons Bench, CBS/AP and Vatican News: Pope Leo's surgery confirmed cancer; lower lobe of his right lung removed

 

BREAKING: Pope Leo has lung cancer

From CBS News/AP: 

Pope Leo XIV’s surgery confirmed that he has lung cancer, and he had the lower lobe of his right lung removed, the Vatican said Tuesday.

The tests confirmed a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin after the surgery. It said the diagnosis had been suspected by preoperative tests and was confirmed during surgery.

The 71-year-old pontiff was in the operating room for about 3 hours, the statement said. The surgery itself lasted approximately 90 minutes. “The surgery was successful, and there were no complications,” the statement said.

Vatican News adds:

“An intraoperative histological examination confirmed the diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, as suspected from the preoperative examinations,” the doctors said.

The Pope was in the operating room for approximately three hours, while the operation itself lasted about 90 minutes. The doctors said it was successful and there were no complications.

Pope Leo awoke normally after surgery and, following a brief period of observation, returned to his room on the hospital’s 10th floor, according to the statement.

Professor Margaritora led the surgical team, assisted by Professor Elisa Meacci, Dr. Maria Teresa Congedo, and Dr. Leonardo Petracca Ciavarella.

The anesthesia team comprised Professor Massimo Antonelli, Dr. Giovanni Punzo, and Dr. Giuseppe Bello.

Following the operation, Pope Leo was served dinner in his room.

The New York Times provides this context:

Medical advances and increasingly effective drug therapies mean that a lung cancer diagnosis is no longer a death sentence. Often, however, because they are normally asymptomatic, lung cancers are not discovered until they are at a late stage, when surgery is no longer an option.

“You can heal from a lung tumor,” said Dr. Lorenzo Spaggiari, a thoracic surgical oncologist at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan who is not part of the pope’s medical team. A patient of his once ran the New York Marathon after having a lung removed, he said.

“The important thing is to catch it an initial stage,” Dr. Spaggiari said.