Pope Leo XIV undergoes surgery for lung adenocarcinoma at Gemelli

Pope Leo XIV undergoes surgery for lung adenocarcinoma at Gemelli

What exactly is known about the Pope's cancer? Leo XIV has a lung adenocarcinoma and surgeons have removed the lower lobe of his right lung. The operation, about 90 minutes within nearly three hours in the operating room, ended with an initial histological examination confirming what preoperative tests had already suggested. The medical bulletin, released just before ten at night, describes a radical procedure using video-assisted technique and without complications. The Pontiff came out with an appetite and asked for dinner.

What lung adenocarcinoma is and why it is operated on

Adenocarcinoma is the most common type of non-small cell lung cancer: between 30% and 40% of all cases. The surgical choice is no accident. According to a forum participant with a healthcare background, removing the affected lobe means that, in principle, the tumor has not spread and the procedure is intended to be curative. That is the technical argument that carries the most weight in reading the bulletin.

The team was led by Stefano Margaritora, 65, trained at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and specialized in thoracic surgery at La Sapienza. He was assisted by Elisa Meacci, María Teresa Congedo and Leonardo Petracca Cavarella. Anesthesiology was handled by Massimo Antonelli, Giovanni Punzo and Giuseppe Bello. Also in the operating room were the Pope's personal physician, Luigi Carbone, and the commander of the Pontifical Gendarmerie, Gianluca Gauzzi Broccoletti.

Vatican transparency and the recovery timeline

The Pope made the diagnosis public just minutes after learning of it. The spokesman, Matteo Bruni, left the decision on treatment and next steps in the hands of the doctors. Before the operation it had already been announced that he would need at least seven days of hospitalization. The first sign of how recovery is going will be whether Sunday's Angelus is confirmed, which he could pray at noon from a window of the Gemelli, as his predecessors did.

The admission scene had its moments. Leo XIV left the Vatican at 12:55 and ten minutes later was crossing the hospital threshold. He got out of the car with a light step and a smile, avoided stopping to shake hands and did not stay in the apartment reserved for Pontiffs on the tenth floor, but in the private patients' area. He is accompanied by his two secretaries, Edgard Rimaycuna and Marco Billeri, and several nuns.

The mood on the forum: from wishes for recovery to score-settling

The dominant reaction is the wish for a recovery, even among those who do not agree with Vatican policies. "Although I don't agree with Vatican policies, I wish him the best," sums up a frequently repeated stance. In parallel, clinical classification appears: some argue that adenocarcinoma is "one of the nastiest ones," while others correct that pancreatic cancer is even worse. The comparison drifts toward non-Hodgkin lymphoma, where there is nothing to remove.

Another current, minority but loud, reads the illness as a political bill. It is hinted that Vatican Freemasonry is paying for its sins, that the Pope did everything possible to push Ratzinger aside, or that his god will save him. These are opinions without evidence, formulated in the heat of the thread with no data behind them. The data, for now, is what the bulletin gave: adenocarcinoma, lower right lobe removed, no complications.

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With all this, the conclave that some considered far off is back in the running. And no medical bulletin can fix that.