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Pope Leo XIV Discharged From Hospital After Surgery, Lung Cancer Diagnosis

Pope Leo XIV Discharged From Hospital After Surgery, Lung Cancer Diagnosis

Edgar Beltrán, The Pillar, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Spencer Lombardo
October 17, 2026 4:40 PM ET

Pope Leo XIV was discharged Saturday afternoon from Rome’s Agostino Gemelli University Hospital after a Tuesday operation to remove a cancerous tumor from his lung.

“At the time of his discharge from the hospital, Pope Leo was in entirely satisfactory clinical condition,” Dr. Stefano Margaritora — the director of the hospital’s thoracic surgery unit who operated on the pope — told Vatican News in an interview published Saturday. He also noted that the supreme pontiff’s blood test results were “completely normal” while his heart function was “fine.”

The Holy See Press Office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Pope Leo announced Oct. 11 he would undergo an operation to remove a “localized nodule,” an irregular lump of tissue, in his lung.

The surgical team confirmed an adenocarcinoma diagnosis — a common type of cancer which originates in the glandular cells — after removing the nodule from the lower lobe of his left lung during the roughly 90-minute operation, the Holy See Press Office stated in a Tuesday press release.

“The discovery of the Pope’s malignant lung tumor was entirely accidental, as unfortunately often happens,” Margaritora told Vatican News. “During routine abdominal examinations, this small spot was found in the chest, at the base of the lung … However, if this small spot had been a little higher up, it certainly would not have been seen.”

The survival rate for adenocarcinoma depends on its stage, according to City of Hope, a private, non-profit biomedical research, treatment, and education center headquartered in Duarte, California, dedicated to cancer, diabetes, and other life-threatening diseases. If the cancer is limited to the lung, the five-year survival rate is 63%; however, if it spreads to other areas of the body, that rate drops to 7%.

Margaritora told Vatican News that he’s “truly pleased” with the pope’s post-operative recovery.

“The Holy Father has put his heart and soul into his recovery, as the most motivated people do after this kind of operation,” he said. “As a result, he needed very little assistance from us. His determination to recover quickly has been effective in every respect.”

Margaritora said that, while Pope Leo still needs ten days to fully recover, there are “no clinical reasons” why he shouldn’t undertake his visit to Latin America scheduled for Nov. 6-17.

“Operating on a pope stirred a deep feeling that I cannot even describe,” Margaritora told the outlet. “Obviously, the person before you is a man – after all, the Pope is a man – but you know very well that he is not an ordinary person. Pope Leo has such charisma that it would be impossible to regard him as ordinary.”

The Holy See Press Office confirmed the American-born pontiff will lead the Sunday Angelus prayer from the window of Vatican’s papal apartment, Vatican News reported Saturday.

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