BOSTON (WHDH) - Dr. Jacob Sands, MD, from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, spoke with 7NEWS about Pope Leo’s recent lung cancer diagnosis. Sands is a Medical Oncologist specializing in lung cancer, whose research focuses on improving treatments for small cell lung cancer, improving lung screening, and assisting in the development of lung screening programs throughout the country.
Pope Leo underwent surgery Tuesday that confirmed a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin after the surgery. It said the diagnosis had been suspected by previous tests, and was confirmed during surgery.
“Often when they find a small nodule, that is a lung cancer, that is often a non-small cell lung cancer, this is something that sounds like it may have been detected very early stage. When we catch this in stage one, it’s something that’s very curable, very often cured by surgery,” Sands explained. “May not even require any chemotherapy after that, could be just surgery. This really highlights the importance of lung cancer screening. Through lung cancer screening we can diagnose lung cancer as a stage one diagnosis, which makes for a completely different scenario than in someone where it’s metastatic.”
The Pope is 71-years-old, but Sands said age is not always a factor in the treatability of cancer, and the ability of the person to recover.
“The age can matter, but I’d say the more important thing is how functional people are. How much resiliance do they have, how much reserve do they have?” Sands said. “I’ve treated individuals in their 90s with chemotherapy, and in some cases, now those were not, kind of, the normal 90-year-old, but there are people that are very fit and very active, even at older ages. How fit and active somebody is matters the most.”
Sands said if Pope Leo requires further treatment, there have been major advancements that could help.
“If he does need systemic treatments, we’ve made some huge advancements in the field with research around immunotherapy, target therapies,” Sands said. “My hope for the Pope is that he had surgery and that’s the only thing needed.”
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