Vatican says Pope Leo needs no further cancer treatment

Pope Leo XIV will not need chemotherapy or any other further treatment after surgeons removed a cancerous tumor from his right lung, his doctors said in a statement the Vatican released on Wednesday, Oct. 21. "The final histological reports and molecular biology analyses of the tissue removed during the Holy Father's surgery have been completed today," lead surgeon Stefano Margaritora and personal physician Luigi Carbone said, according to CNN reporting carried by WJCL. "The results have confirmed that the condition was a pulmonary adenocarcinoma and that the disease was localized. A subsequent oncological evaluation has confirmed that no further therapy is required."americamagazine.org

This is the clearest sign yet that the 71-year-old pontiff's cancer was caught early. It also improves the odds that he will make his planned trip to Latin America next month.

Waiting on the results

Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ↘ 0.07% also reported the doctors' finding that the disease had stayed localized and that no further therapy was needed, as published by CTV News. El País Promotora de Informaciones, S.A. said the pope had been waiting for the tissue analysis to learn whether surgery alone had dealt with the cancer or whether he would need chemotherapy, radiotherapy or immunotherapy.ctvnews.ca+1

Leo had the lower lobe of his right lung removed on Oct. 13 at Rome's Gemelli hospital. The roughly 90-minute operation confirmed lung adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer. At the time, outside experts said they could not judge his prognosis until they knew the tumor's stage and whether it had reached the lymph nodes. Georgetown oncologist Stephen Liu said that "if this is a small lung cancer with no lymph nodes involved, surgery itself is likely to be curative".apnews.com+1

Recovery and travel plans

The pope left the hospital on Oct. 17, sooner than first expected. That day Margaritora told Vatican News there were "no clinical reasons" to stop the Nov. 6–17 trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, which includes a dozen flights and two helicopter rides to high altitudes. At his Angelus appearance on Oct. 18, Leo said he would "gradually resume" his activities now that "this delicate phase is behind me".apnews.com+1

On Wednesday morning, before the test results came out, Leo led his first general audience since the surgery. He spoke in a strong voice in St. Peter's Square and sang the Our Father in Latin. He did not mention the Latin America trip, which America Magazine took as a sign that no final decision had been made. The Vatican has kept the trip on the pope's schedule.americamagazine.org+1