Is the cancer gone?
It is hard to tell, as the Vatican has not disclosed information on the size of the tumour and whether the cancer has spread to the pope’s lymph nodes.
“While we have the diagnosis, we do not yet have the stage. This is critical to prognosis and treatment,” said Dr Stephen Liu, a lung cancer expert at Georgetown University in Washington and division chief of haematology-oncology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
“If this is a small lung cancer with no lymph nodes involved, surgery itself is likely to be curative,” he told Reuters. “But if final analysis reveals a greater extent of cancer involvement, this indicates a poorer prognosis.”
Dr Lim from Parkway Cancer Centre said that even if surgery is successful, there is still a risk of recurrence.
Pope Leo will be considered as cured from this cancer after five years of being documented as cancer-free, added Prof Tam.
Will the pope require chemotherapy or other treatments?
Aside from surgery, other types of treatment for lung cancer include chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy. The pope may not need to undergo any of these if the surgery alone proves sufficient in its effectiveness.
According to Prof Tam, the answer will depend on several factors, such as the size and location of the cancerous mass removed, the status of the lymph nodes, whether or not the disease has spread and the completeness of the surgery.
If the tumour is contained within the removed lobe, and no evidence of any spread is found, then other post-surgery treatments like chemotherapy may not be needed, he said.
A Vatican source indicated that additional testing is underway.
For Dr Carbone, the fact that the pope has already undergone surgery is encouraging.
“Because if it had spread to, for example, the lymph nodes in the centre of the chest, he would have had some treatment before surgery, which he didn’t have,” he explained.
“They really do go straight to surgery only for the earliest stage tumours, which makes me think this was a very early-stage tumour, and has a quite good prognosis.”
He stressed that treatment for lung cancer has improved considerably over the past few decades, “and the prognosis is better than ever”.
