Pope Leo discharged from hospital after lung cancer surgery

Pope Leo XIV was discharged from the hospital on Saturday after undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous nodule from his right lung.

The pontiff, who had been recovering at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital since Tuesday, walked out unaided before spending a couple of minutes speaking with well-wishers. He appeared to accept a gift of a homemade smiling Pope figure before getting in a car and being driven back to the Vatican.

“Following the conclusions reached by the medical team this morning, Pope Leo XIV will be discharged today from Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital, where he was admitted for surgery on his right lung,” the Holy See Press said Saturday in a statement, before the Leo left the building mid-afternoon.

He is expected to recite the Angelus prayer from the window of the papal apartment at St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday, according to the statement.

The pontiff’s personal doctor, Dr. Luigi Carbone, and the head of thoracic surgery at Gemelli Hospital, Dr. Stefano Margaritora, said that in light of blood tests and a chest X-ray performed Saturday morning, and after an assessment of his clinical condition, “the Holy Father has been deemed fit for discharge from the hospital.”

So far, Leo’s doctors have given no indication that the pontiff might need any further treatment. And the Vatican has not indicated whether the cancer might have spread.

Leo, who is a Chicago native, resumed working from the hospital on Thursday, his doctors and the Vatican reported.

The Vatican on Friday released the first images of Leo since his surgery, showing him celebrating Mass inside the hospital, as doctors said that tests confirmed the “continued improvement” in his recovery.

The photos show Leo standing up at the altar in green vestments celebrating Mass in a makeshift chapel that has been set up for him. Spokesman Matteo Bruni said he presided alone over the liturgy, distributed Communion to medical personnel and Vatican gendarmes present and delivered a homily.

His discharge from the hospital comes less than a month before Leo is scheduled to jet off for a two-week trip to South America, which is set to start Nov. 11.

Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori, in an interview on Peruvian television, said the pace of the pope’s recovery could determine whether Leo makes his weeklong apostolic visit to Peru.

“I want the pope to know that here in Peru, millions of us are praying for his speedy recovery,” Fujimori said Wednesday.

Leo was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a type of non-small cell lung cancer, after doctors examined the nodule they had removed from his right lung.

Non-small cell lung cancer accounts for 80% of all cases of the disease, according to the American Lung Association.

This type of cancer affects both smokers and nonsmokers, although Leo is not known to ever have been a smoker.

The initial lump was detected during a routine check, the Vatican has said. The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics took the rare step of revealing the health issue — the first of his papacy — during his Sunday noon prayer last week.

Leo waved to crowds outside Rome’s Gemelli Hospital as he entered Tuesday.

The procedure was led by Dr. Stefano Margaritora, Gemelli’s chief thoracic surgeon, with medical staff reciting the rosary prayer in the hospital chapel as the operation began.