Pope Leo's Operated Lung Recovering Well, Doctors Say, as Cancer Pathology Results Remain Pending

Since surgeons removed the lower lobe of Pope Leo XIV's right lung on Tuesday, Oct. 13, the Vatican has described a steady, uneventful recovery. The latest medical bulletin, issued Thursday, Oct. 15, reports that the operated lung is healing well.

What the doctors reported Thursday

The update came from the pope's personal physician, Dr. Luigi Carbone, and Dr. Stefano Margaritora, head of thoracic surgery at Rome's Gemelli Hospital. "The chest X-ray revealed good recovery of the operated lung," they said. Blood tests and the X-ray were normal.

The pope's physiotherapy session involved full mobility exercises, and he is carrying out his daily activities independently, according to the doctors. "Overall, his postoperative recovery is proceeding as expected," they said.

The day before, the doctors said his values were "within the expected range for the type of operation performed." On Wednesday, Oct. 14, he began walking around his room and ate breakfast and lunch normally.

The Vatican also said the pope had a calm second night. He is 71 and had no previously known health problems.

Working from the hospital

Holy See Press Office director Matteo Bruni told journalists the pope has resumed working. He looked over documents and received Archbishop Paolo Rudelli, deputy for general affairs at the Secretariat of State, on Thursday afternoon.

Leo has concelebrated Mass two days running in a chapel set up for him on the hospital's 10th floor, Bruni said. On Wednesday it was a room prepared specially for that purpose. On Thursday he spent a few minutes in the temporary chapel with one of his collaborators.

Church business is continuing. The Vatican announced two bishop appointments Thursday that Leo signed from the hospital. One is Father Paolo Andreolli as bishop of Ponta de Pedras, Brazil. The other is Father Ignazio Ding Zuyao as bishop of Haimen in Jiangsu Province, China. The Vatican said Leo had appointed Ding on Aug. 24, 2026, after approving his candidacy under the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People's Republic of China.

The answers still outstanding

The good news concerns recovery from the operation. It does not settle the cancer question. Doctors are still waiting on tests of the removed tissue that will establish the tumor's precise molecular makeup, whether the disease spread beyond the lobe, and whether any further treatment is necessary.

Intraoperative examination had already confirmed lung adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer. Leo said on Sunday, Oct. 11, that the nodule was found at "a very early stage and well situated." The Vatican has not released a stage or any prognosis.

Leo is expected to stay hospitalized until at least Oct. 20.

The South America trip

Leo is scheduled to travel Nov. 6-17 to Peru, Uruguay and Argentina. Asked Thursday whether changes to the trip were expected, Bruni did not announce any. He pointed instead to what Leo said Sunday, when he disclosed the nodule: "Thank you for your prayers for the pastoral visit I will make to Peru."

The pathology findings will bear directly on that schedule. If further treatment is recommended, it would fall in the same weeks as the trip's planning.

Sunday's Angelus

The Vatican has not said whether Leo will lead the public Angelus prayer from Gemelli on Sunday, Oct. 18, as some of his predecessors did during hospital stays. An announcement is expected soon.

The next concrete marker is the pathology report. The Vatican said the removed tissue would undergo more testing, and the results, along with any treatment decision, are what the public is waiting to hear before Leo's earliest possible discharge on Oct. 20.