Pope Leo XIV on Sunday announced that he would be going for a surgery to remove a small nodule from his lung.

The cleric in a post on X said, “During some recent medical examinations, the doctors found a small, localized nodule in my lung. It was detected at a very early stage and is well-localized.”

Per doctors advice, the Pope said he would be under the knife in the coming days to remove the nodule from his lung.

“The doctors believe that it is best to intervene, so, following their advice, I have decided to undergo surgery to remove it. The operation is already scheduled to take place in the coming days. I thank you for your spiritual closeness and entrust myself to your prayers,” the Pope said.

Fleischner Society, cited in a study by National Institute of Health, defined a lung nodule “as an approximately rounded opacity more or less well-defined measuring up to 3 cm in diameter. Rounded lesions measuring more than 3 cm in diameter are termed lung masses and should be considered indicative of lung cancer until histologically proven otherwise.”

A professor and chief of UCLA Health’s Thoracic Oncology Service in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Drew Moghanaki, MD, explained that most lung nodules appear during unrelated imaging studies or lung cancer screening. 

He noted that fewer than five per cent of all lung nodules are lung cancer (malignant), adding that it doesn’t mean one should assume the mass is nothing.

“Lung nodules almost never cause any symptoms. Most people don’t feel them, so they’re easy to ignore,” Dr Moghanaki said. “But in some situations, the lung nodule represents the early stages of a lung cancer that can be easily cured with surgery or targeted radiation therapy.”