VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV returned to the Vatican on Saturday days after an operation for lung cancer, with his surgeon saying there was “no clinical reason” to prevent his planned trip to Latin America next month.
“The Holy Father put his whole heart and soul into his recovery,” Dr. Stefano Margaritora told Vatican News, adding that he expected the pope to fully recover from the operation “in about 10 days.”
Leo, 71, is scheduled to take an ambitious trip from November 6 to 17 to Uruguay, Peru and Argentina, including a dozen flights and two high-altitude helicopter flights.
“As far as a long trip involving a plane trip of about three weeks, I would say there is no clinical reason why it should not take place,” Margaritora said.
Leo had the lower lobe of his right lung removed Tuesday in the first major health event of his 17-month pontificate. The operation confirmed he had adenocarcinomathe most common type of lung cancer. He left the hospital on Saturday, well ahead of the week-long hospitalization the Vatican had initially planned.
Pope says he feels ‘much better’
“I am much better, thank you,” the pope said when asked how he was as he was taken away in a black SUV.
Leo greeted patients inside the hospital accompanied by his surgeon, before greeting well-wishers outside who shouted “Holiness” as he walked towards a waiting vehicle.
He caught a break when a 13-year-old Ukrainian girl presented him with a homemade papal doll that she said had helped her through cancer treatment. She had met Leo briefly at an audience in St. Peter’s Square last December – a meeting, she told reporters, “gave her the strength to overcome the illness.”
AP AUDIO: Pope Leo returns to the Vatican 4 days after lung cancer surgery
Pope Leo has been released from hospital after cancer surgery. AP correspondent Donna Warder reports.
Since the surgery, Leo has shown signs of healing well. He had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, held meetings with high-ranking aides and celebrated mass in a makeshift hospital chapel.
He will assume his first official function on Sunday, delivering the traditional Angelus blessing to the faithful in St. Peter’s Square. This happens exactly one week after the the pontiff revealed to crowds in the square that the nodule had been discovered and would be surgically removed – an unusually candid revelation for the Vatican.
Other tests in progress
Margaritora, chief thoracic surgeon at Gemelli Hospital in Rome, also confirmed that the nodule was discovered by chance during routine abdominal exams. It appears as “a little spot” at the base of the lung, which extends to the diaphragm, he said.
He added that if the place had been higher, “we certainly wouldn’t have seen it.”
The cancer was in its early stages and the pope had “no respiratory symptoms and felt perfectly well,” Margaritora said.
He described Tuesday’s procedure to remove the lobe as “routine” and “uncomplicated” but acknowledged that it “raised deep feelings…to operate on a pope who, for the first time – at least in modern history – is undergoing surgery for a malignancy.”
The Vatican has not revealed that the tumor was clever until after Tuesday’s successful operation. It was later confirmed that the Pope had undergone a biopsy before being admitted to Gemelli. Experts say cutting-edge Ion robotic bronchoscopy would have indicated whether the tumor was malignant and possibly whether the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes.
Histological testing of the tumor and associated lymph nodes was ongoing. The results, along with details of the tumor’s molecular and genetic makeup, will help doctors determine whether Pope needs further treatment. Options include chemotherapy, a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, or targeted oral therapy based on the genetic characteristics of the tumor.
Margaritora said the pope’s recovery so far had required “very little help from us.”
“His determination to recover quickly was effective in every way. It was truly commendable,” the surgeon said.
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