What we know about Pope Leo's lung cancer and prognosis

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The Vatican says Pope Leo has lung cancer and that doctors removed the lower lobe of his right lung in a surgery that lasted roughly 90 minutes. In a statement, the Vatican called the operation "successful" and said there were “no complications.” For more on the Pope’s prognosis, Geoff Bennett spoke with Dr. Omer Awan, a physician and senior public health contributor at Forbes.

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The Vatican says that Pope Leo has lung cancer and that doctors removed the lower lobe of his right lung today in a surgery that lasted roughly 90 minutes. In a statement, the Vatican called the operation successful and said there were no complications.

And that means presumably it hasn't spread to other parts of the body. We don't know that definitively, but presumably that's what that means. And also the size of this lesion, we know, before it was removed, it was a nodule. By definition, a nodule is three centimeters of size or less.

Is removing an affected portion of the lung, is that curative, or would someone with this diagnosis typically need treatment, such as radiation or chemotherapy?

That, Geoff, will really depend on some of the features that we see on pathology, which is the report that's given once they have run tests on the tumor once they have removed it.

And also the biological characteristics of the tumor, some features can increase the risk of recurrence. So all that information really needs to be seen and understood before we can really understand the prognosis of the tumor. And that will be given once the pathology report is seen.

The pope is 71 years old. He maintains a demanding schedule, to say the least. What does recovery from this type of surgery typically involve?

Well, they have removed one lobe of the lung, and the right lung has three lobes. So they removed one out of the three lobes. So that can certainly reduce the function and capacity of the lung, but the lung does compensate and expands with time.

Leaving the hospital is very different than fully recovering, because he does have a very demanding schedule. So he may leave the hospital, but he may not be fully recovered. And that's going to take weeks, perhaps even months, depending on his underlying health and his underlying lung function and stamina, as he does more breathing exercises with his medical team.

Dr. Omer Awan, thank you for being with us. We appreciate your insights.