The surgeon who operated on Pope Leo XIV earlier this week detailed in an interview with Vatican News how the pope’s cancer was discovered, moments before and after his surgery and the importance of prevention.
The pope was dump from the hospital on Saturday – four days after his operation – to a large crowd of well-wishers cheering him on.
Dr. Stefano Margaritora, director of the thoracic surgery unit at the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital Foundation, spoke to Vatican News in a lengthy interview and said the pope’s lung cancer was discovered “entirely by chance.”
“The Holy Father falls into the category of people who discover they have lung cancer quite by chance, not because they are undergoing preventive screening, but because they are undergoing examinations for other reasons,” Margaritora said.
Margaritora said the tumor was found at the base of the right lung, but if it had been “a little higher, it certainly wouldn’t have been seen.”
Unfortunately, the doctor said, in its early stages, cancers may have no symptoms — like the lung cancer Pope was diagnosed with. That’s why regular preventative checkups for other cancers are so important, he said.
“He had no respiratory symptoms and felt perfectly fine,” Margaritora said.
The 71-year-old pontiff revealed the news at the end of his Sunday lunchtime blessing last week in front of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.
Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images 
Margaritora said the operation to remove a pulmonary nodule was routine and took place “without any complications”. The Pope was diagnosed with lung adenocarcinomaa common cancer, during the operation.
The doctor said that during the four days the pope recovered at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, he was “an ideal patient.”
“I’m not saying this to flatter him. He really didn’t pose the slightest problem to the team that took care of him…” the doctor told Vatican News.
He said that on the second day after the operation, medical staff found the pope arranging chairs in the hospital’s makeshift chapel. Margaritora said staff offered to move the chairs: “Holy Father, we can do it.” And he said, “It doesn’t matter. I can do it, so I will.”
The Pope had already resumed certain work activities THURSDAY. On Friday, the Pope spoke by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photos of the American-born Pope standing before an altar dressed in green clothing, celebrate mass in a small hospital chapel, were released by the Vatican.
He also had separate meetings with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, dean of the College of Cardinals, and Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome. The pope is scheduled to visit Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from November 6 to 17.
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