Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 80, began a course of preventive radiotherapy on Monday after the removal of a cancerous lesion from his scalp, drawing renewed attention to the health of the veteran leader just four months before presidential elections in which he intends to seek a fourth term. The Sírio-Libanês Hospital in São Paulo, the private facility where Lula receives medical care, confirmed the start of treatment in a bulletin released mid-morning in Brasília.

The treatment consists of fifteen superficial radiotherapy sessions of two minutes each, spread over three weeks, targeting the scalp following the removal of a basal cell carcinoma on 24 April. Basal cell carcinoma is the most common and least aggressive form of skin cancer, typically linked to prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation, and there is no evidence of metastasis in Lula's case. The president's medical team emphasised that the procedure will not interfere with his official schedule — a point underscored when Lula attended a public event alongside Brazilian and African university rectors on the same day treatment began. The Panama hat he has worn consistently at public appearances over the past month had been, until now, the most visible sign that an earlier intervention had taken place.

This is not Lula's first encounter with cancer. He was treated for laryngeal cancer in 2011, shortly after the end of his second presidential term, requiring chemotherapy at the time. During his current third term, which began in January 2023, he has undergone multiple medical procedures, including surgery for a laryngeal nodule, the placement of a hip prosthesis, cataract surgery on his left eye, a cosmetic eyelid procedure, and treatment for hand tendinitis. The most serious episode came in December 2024, when he suffered a brain haemorrhage after a domestic fall, requiring emergency transfer from Brasília to São Paulo for urgent surgery.

The announcement arrives at a politically sensitive moment. Lula has publicly confirmed his intention to stand in the general election scheduled for 4 October, with a potential runoff on 25 October — two days before he turns 81. If elected, he would be 85 at the end of a fourth term. He had initially declared that his current term would be his last, but over the past year he reversed that position, confirming his candidacy in an interview with the newspaper El País last month. Polls give him a narrow lead over his principal rival, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently under humanitarian house arrest following a 27-year prison sentence handed down in November for leading a conspiracy against the outcome of the 2022 election.