Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva began a course of preventive radiotherapy on Monday morning, three weeks after the removal of a basal cell carcinoma lesion from his scalp. Doctors at the Sirio-Libanes Hospital in São Paulo, where the procedure is being administered, said the treatment will involve 15 daily sessions of superficial radiotherapy over the next three weeks.
Basal cell carcinoma is the most common and least aggressive form of skin cancer, with cure rates above 95 per cent when treated early. The lesion was removed on April 24 during a routine dermatological check and identified by biopsy soon afterwards; medical staff said the decision to add radiotherapy was a precaution rather than a response to evidence that the cancer had spread.
Lula’s personal physician, Roberto Kalil Filho, said in a written statement that the 80-year-old president was expected to maintain his full schedule of public engagements during the treatment, with the daily sessions scheduled around his morning meetings. The president will travel between his official residence in São Paulo and the hospital each weekday for the duration of the course.
The president faces a difficult political year. He is widely expected to seek a fourth non-consecutive term in the October presidential election and currently leads Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, in most opinion polls in a hypothetical second round. A recent Datafolha survey put Lula at 47 per cent against Bolsonaro’s 38 per cent in a head-to-head match-up.
Lula’s health has been a recurring backdrop to his current term. He underwent surgery for a brain bleed in December 2024 and has since recovered without long-term effects; doctors said at the time that an annual full-body screening had been built into his medical schedule. The basal cell lesion was identified during one such screening.
The radiotherapy news drew calm reactions from financial markets. The real strengthened modestly against the dollar in early trading on Monday and the Ibovespa equity index opened flat. Allies of the president have used the announcement to emphasise his fitness to campaign through the southern-hemisphere winter; his opponents have so far avoided public comment on the diagnosis.