Pope Leo XIV’s condition: What is lung adenocarcinoma?

Lung adenocarcinoma, the condition that Pope Leo XIV was diagnosed with on Tuesday, is a common form of lung cancer that can be highly treatable when caught early, health officials said.

Doctors removed a lower lobe of the 71-year-old pontiff’s right lung during a 90-minute procedure at a Rome hospital.

The National Institutes of Health notes that lung adenocarcinoma accounts for approximately 40% of all lung cancers. The condition most commonly occurs among adults 70 and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to The New York Times, the survival rates for lung adenocarcinoma can vary, depending on what stage of cancer is found in the patient.

The Vatican did not reveal any information about how far the cancer had advanced in the pope, the newspaper reported. However, because doctors called the growth of his lung a “localized nodule” and surgery was the first option, it appears that the pope’s cancer was in its early stages, Daniel Boffa, the chief of thoracic surgery at the Yale School of Medicine, told the Times.

“Adenocarcinoma is the most common (type of lung cancer), also with the most favorable prognosis,” Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, told The Associated Press. “While we know the diagnosis, we now need to know the stage.

“We now need to know how big it is, how many spots in the lung are involved. Is it just one nodule, or more than one, and the lymph nodes, are they cancerous?”

The right lung, which is larger, has three sections called lobes, while the left lung has two, CNN reported. Doctors will often remove the lobe where the growth is discovered to eliminate the tumor and improve the chances of beating the cancer, according to the cable news outlet.

According to the Mayo Clinic, people who smoke have the greatest risk of lung cancer. The risk of lung cancer increases with the length of time and number of cigarettes smoked.

Boffa told the Times that an estimated one in seven patients with lung adenocarcinoma do not have a history of smoking. Leo is not known to be a smoker, according to the newspaper.

Nonsmokers can develop lung cancer because of exposure to secondhand smoke, radon gas, or asbestos, The Washington Post reported.

Edward Garon, the director of thoracic oncology at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, told the newspaper that treatment options have improved dramatically over the past few years.

For example, tumors found in nonsmokers with lung adenocarcinoma have a mutation, and a targeted therapy can be used to treat it.

“The treatment approach differs tremendously compared to when I started my practice in 2006,” Garon told the Times.

According to OncoDaily, symptoms for lung adenocarcinoma include a persistent cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, coughing up blood, weight loss and fatigue. Other signs include hoarseness, wheezing, difficulty swallowing, recurrent respiratory infections, swelling in parts of the body -- including the face or neck -- and persistent chest or shoulder pain.

If it is detected during an early stage, the lung cancer tumor can be removed surgically. That was the procedure the pope had on Tuesday.

Raja Flores, chairman of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, said that early detection and treatment can lead to long-term survival rates. Patients can still exercise and lead a normal life, he told the Post.

“I’ve had patients run marathons afterwards,” he told the newspaper.

Edward Chan, chief of Thoracic Surgery at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, told the Post that because lung cancer can develop without symptoms, screenings are crucial for detecting and fighting the disease.

“The earlier you find it, the greater your chance of a complete (recovery),” Chan told the newspaper.

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