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Pope Leo XIV will leave hospital on Saturday, four days after undergoing lung cancer surgery, and will give the traditional noon blessing on Sunday from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican announced.
The 71-year-old had the lower lobe of his right lung removed after doctors detected a suspected cancerous nodule. Surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer.
Although the pope’s doctors stated the operation was successful and without complications, they have not disclosed the tumour’s size or whether it spread to nearby lymph nodes, which are key to his prognosis.
In a separate statement, his personal physician and surgeon said Leo was “deemed fit for discharge from the hospital” following blood test results, a Saturday morning chest X-ray, and an assessment of his condition.
He is set to leave the hospital in the early afternoon and return to the Vatican, the Vatican said in a brief statement.
The cancer diagnosis for a pope known to be relatively young and energetic and who was elected only in May 2025 caused shock and raised questions about the future shape of his papacy as he deals with the illness.
The Vatican has released the first images of Pope Leo XIV since his lung cancer surgery, showing him celebrating Mass, as doctors said tests confirmed “continued improvement” in his recovery.
In the photos, Leo is seen standing at the altar in green vestments celebrating Mass in a makeshift chapel set up for him in Rome’s Gemelli hospital.
The pontiff presided alone over the liturgy, distributed Communion to medical personnel and Vatican gendarmes present and delivered a homily, spokesman Matteo Bruni said.
Leo thanked the hospital staff in his homily “for the work they do every day taking care of the sick in their fragility, and in a particular way what they had done for him,” Bruni said.
Leo is set to make his first public appearance on Sunday, to deliver the traditional noontime prayer.
“His post-operative recovery allows him to carry out his normal daily activities completely on his own,” said a medical update signed by Leo’s personal physician Dr. Luigi Carbone and the head of thoracic surgery at the Gemelli hospital, Dr. Stefano Margaritora.