Top photo caption: Images of Pope Leo XVI and other objects are displayed at the base of the statue of St. John Paul II outside Rome’s Gemelli Hospital Oct. 15, 2026. Doctors treating Pope Leo XIV said Oct. 15 that tests show “good recovery of the operated lung” two days after his cancer surgery. The Pope underwent surgery Oct. 13 to remove the lower lobe of his right lung and was diagnosed with lung cancer. (SV News photo/Remo Casilli Reuters
By Courtney Mares, OSV News
ROME OSV News – Doctors treating Pope Leo XIV said Oct. 15 that tests show “good recovery of the operated lung” two days after his cancer surgery.
A joint statement from Dr. Luigi Carbone, the Pope’s personal doctor, and Dr. Stefano Margaritora, the chief surgeon for his operation, said that Pope Leo underwent routine checks in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on the morning of Oct. 15 which “showed normal results.”
“The chest X-ray revealed good recovery of the operated lung,” the doctors added, noting that the Pope’s physical therapy session that day also “included a full range of motor activities.”
“Overall, his postoperative recovery is proceeding as expected,” the statement said.
Pope Leo carried out his daily activities independently, it said, something Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni described as including doing a bit of normal work activities from the hospital.
On the night of Oct. 14, the Vatican confirmed that Pope Leo had concelebrated a Mass that day in the hospital chapel on the 10th floor on the day after his surgery.
Pope Leo was admitted to Gemelli Hospital Oct. 13 a few hours before his lung cancer surgery, following the Pope’s Oct. 11 disclosure that recent medical examinations had revealed a “well-contained” lung nodule that had been “detected at a very early stage.”
During the 90-minute video-assisted technique operation, doctors removed the lower lobe of his right lung.
The Vatican spokesman told journalists Oct. 14 that before having surgery, the 71-year-old Pope had undergone a robotic bronchoscopy with biopsy, a chest CT scan with contrast, which indicated that the lung lobectomy was needed.
“They caught it early enough, and he’ll be able to heal from the surgery and go on with his papal ministry,” Pope Leo’s older brother, Louis Prevost, said Oct. 13 in an interview with Newsmax.
The Pope’s brother said he is currently in treatment for cancer, participating in a clinical trial in Tampa, Florida, for multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer affecting the bone marrow, which he was first diagnosed with in 2017 and had been in remission until this year. He said that because of the clinical trial he is unable to travel to see his brother as he recovers from surgery in Rome.
On the day of the surgery, “I got a message from his right hand that he was out of surgery, awake, feeling good, and was in no pain,” Prevost said. “So, as far as I know thus far, he’s in good shape, in good hands.”
The Italian newspaper Repubblica said Oct. 15 that reportedly Pope Leo’s tumor had been discovered by chance in mid-September around the Pope’s 71st birthday during an MRI scan of the abdomen performed discreetly at Fatebenefratelli Hospital.
The report raises questions as to what Pope Leo may have known about his health during his apostolic visit to France and pilgrimage to the healing Marian shrine of Lourdes, where the Pope prayed for and offered words of encouragement to the sick and the suffering.
According to Vatican News, further post-operation tests on the tissue removed were planned in the days following the surgery. It would typically take at least a week to get all of the biopsy results back, doctors not involved in the Pope’s care told OSV News.
Pope Leo is expected to remain in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital as he recovers from surgery for at least one week. The Vatican has canceled all of the Pope’s scheduled audiences through Oct. 20.
Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.
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