{"id":95529,"date":"2026-10-15T17:58:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T15:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/?p=95529"},"modified":"2026-10-15T17:58:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T15:58:49","slug":"two-generations-four-cancer-diagnoses-is-pope-leo-xivs-cancer-hereditary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/2026\/10\/15\/two-generations-four-cancer-diagnoses-is-pope-leo-xivs-cancer-hereditary\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Generations, Four Cancer Diagnoses: Is Pope Leo XIV's Cancer Hereditary?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a tough lady and handles it all well.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


That\u2019s how a young Robert Prevost described his mother, Mildred, in a letter he sent from Rome in February 1984. At the time, Mildred was undergoing chemotherapy. Just six years later, she died of cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, her son is facing the same disease. From the balcony of the apostolic palace, Pope Leo XIV announced to the world that he was undergoing surgery to remove a nodule from his right lung. Days later, the post-op examinations revealed it was cancerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Pope Leo and his mother are not the only members of his family to have battled cancer. The Pope's eldest brother, Louis Prevost, has a form of blood cancer. He is currently being treated for multiple myeloma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, their father, Louis Marius Prevost, also had colon cancer. He died from a combination of the cancer and heart disease in 1997.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their family history raises an important question. With four cases of cancer across two generations, what role do genetics play?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DR. CLARE TURNBALL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor of Cancer Genetics, Institute of Cancer Research London<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The slightly daunting figure is that one in two of us will get a serious cancer over the course of our lives. So, actually the fact that that three of them have all got cancer is not a particularly, well, because they're all different cancers, that's not a dramatic coincidence.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, while the number of cancer cases in the Prevost family may raise questions about genetics, it does not necessarily point to an inherited cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we age, mutations can accumulate in our cells, increasing the risk of developing cancer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DR. CLARE TURNBALL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor of Cancer Genetics, Institute of Cancer Research London<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Effectively it's a function of age: the longer we live the more likely it is. It's a bit like getting three cherries on the slot machine. You get a series of the wrong mutations in a particular cell and then that makes the cell become oncogenic and cancerous.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pope Leo continues his recovery at Rome\u2019s Gemelli Hospital, showing the same strength he once admired in his mother.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate Stevenson<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cShe\u2019s a tough lady and handles it all well.\u201d That\u2019s how a young Robert Prevost described his mother, Mildred, in a letter he sent from Rome in February 1984. At the time, Mildred was undergoing chemotherapy. Just six years later, she died of cancer. Now, her son is facing the same disease. From the balcony […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":758,"featured_media":95531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/BDqevn4VFd4","video_descarga":"https:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bstorialemedicoprevosteng.mp4","international_url":"https:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bstorialemedicoprevostint.mp4","type":"bn","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95529"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/758"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95529"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95539,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95529\/revisions\/95539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}