Pope Leo to Undergo Surgery After Doctors Find Nodule in Lung

Pope Leo XIV revealed he is planning to undergo surgery after doctors found a small, localized nodule in his lung.

“It was detected at a very early stage and is well-localized,” Pope Leo said in a Sunday morning post on X.

“The doctors believe that it is best to intervene, so, following their advice, I have decided to undergo surgery to remove it.”

The surgery is expected to take place in “the coming days,” and the pope did not specify exactly when or where the operation would take place.

“I thank you for your spiritual closeness and entrust myself to your prayers,” he added.

A pulmonary nodule is a spot on a person’s lung that can be detected on a chest X-ray or CT scan, according to The Cleveland Clinic.

Small lung nodules are found in nearly one out of three chest CT scans, and most are not cancerous, the nonprofit medical center states.

But if the nodule grows and presses on a person’s airway, or if it is cancerous, patients can experience symptoms such as chest pain, coughing up blood, hoarseness, loss of appetite, and recurrent respiratory infections such as bronchitis or pneumonia.

Most nodules seen on a patient’s X-ray are about half an inch in size, and fewer than 5 percent of nodules turn out to be cancer, according to the American Thoracic Society.

Other factors that make a patient more likely to have a cancerous nodule are being older, having a larger nodule, smoking or continuing to smoke cigarettes, having had lung cancer in the family, and/or having previously handled asbestos.

This is a developing story and will be updated.