What we know about Pope Leo XIV's lung cancer diagnosis

Pope Leo XIV had a cancerous tumor surgically removed from his right lung on Tuesday in a 90-minute operation described as "successful" by the Vatican. Here are what several medical experts told AFP about the surgery and diagnosis. What is pulmonary adenocarcinoma? Pulmonary adenocarcinoma, the type of tumor removed from the Pope, generally comes from "a primary cancer," said Dr. Juanita Mora, a medical spokesperson for the American Lung Association. She told AFP that "is a good thing" because it means the tumor is from lung cancer instead of generating from the spread of another cancer. There are two main types of lung cancer: "small cell" cancers, which spread aggressively and make up about 10 to 15% of diagnoses, and "non-small cell" cancers, which make up the vast majority. "Adenocarcinoma is the most common kind of what's called non-small cell lung cancer," David Spigel, a medical oncologist specializing in lung cancer research at Nashville's Sarah Cannon Research Institute, told AFP. Read morePope Leo diagnosed with lung cancer after doctors successfully remove nodule Promising outlook David Carbone, director of the Oncology Center at Ohio State University, noted that while s...