After Pope Leo XIV leaves hospital, his doctors say he won't need more lung cancer treatments

Pope Leo XIV

Since Pope Leo XIV's follow-up tests confirmed his disease was localized, his doctors say he won't need any further treatment for lung cancer.

The 71-year-old pontiff's surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer.

The pope was discharged  from Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic four days after the operation in which the lower lobe of his right lung was removed in "the first major health event of his 17-month pontificate," according to an Associated Press story online today.

Surgery, the article says, "often can be enough when tumors are caught very early, such as when somehow an X-ray or other scan shows a spot long before it's large or causing symptoms…The pope appears to have had one of those 'incidental findings,'" a nodule in his lung spotted during another exam" for potential abdominal abnormalities.

The AP dispatch also says that "the pope carried on business while in the hospital, including a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and has appeared strong in two public appearances at the Vatican since the surgery."

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