Pope Leo spent a "quiet night" after cancer surgery. The big question is unanswered.

Pope Leo XIV spent a "quiet night" at Rome's Gemelli hospital following Tuesday's surgery that confirmed his lung cancer diagnosis, CNN reported. The 71-year-old pontiff is back in his room on the hospital's 10th floor after surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung.

The Vatican's medical statement, prepared by the pope's personal physician Dr. Luigi Carbone and surgeon Prof. Stefano Margaritora, spoke of the "radical" removal of the lobe — indicating doctors removed all suspect tissue. The operation lasted about 90 minutes within a three-hour operating-room stay; there were no complications and Leo woke normally.

The load-bearing unknown: the cancer's stage. Lymph nodes were removed and tested, but the Vatican has not released the results, nor the tumor's size. Oncologist Dr. Stephen Liu of Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center told AP that staging requires both — and that a surgery-alone cure is likely only if the tumor was small with no lymph-node involvement. The Vatican says doctors are "not currently speaking of" chemotherapy pending test results.

No public appearances until Oct. 20; the expected hospital stay is about a week. Leo disclosed the nodule himself on Sunday, calling it detected at "a very early stage."