What to know about Pope Leo’s lung surgery

Pope Leo XIV said Sunday he will have surgery this week to remove an early-stage nodule on his lung.

The Vatican didn’t say what type of lung surgery the pontiff will undergo, but that the “small, localized nodule” was found in his lung during recent medical tests.

A lung nodule is a small mass of tissue detected through X-ray or CT scan screening. According to the American Lung Cancer, nodules can be caused by a number of factors, including irritants such as air pollution, diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and cancer. They can also be caused by scar tissue from a previous infection.

Leo said the nodule was detected “at a very early stage.”

There are several approaches to surgery, depending on the size and location of the nodule and whether doctors suspect cancer, said Dr. Ankit Bharat, the chief of thoracic surgery at Northwestern Medicine.

Most nodules are benign, and it’s unclear whether the pope had a biopsy after the tests.

“When doctors decide to proceed directly to surgery rather than first obtaining a biopsy, it can suggest a higher level of concern on the lung scan,” Bharat said.

What to know about Pope Leo’s surgery to remove a…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/health