King Juan Carlos underwent a successful operation to remove a small benign growth from his right lung, doctors said yesterday.

The doctors ruled out any possibility the 72-year-old monarch was suffering from any form of lung cancer after the growth was discovered during his yearly medical tests in late April.

“The medical team considered it necessary to analyze morphological changes in a calcification on his Majesty’s right lung,which had been observed in previous years,” the Royal Palace said in an official communique

Dr. Laureano Molins Lopez-Rodo said after the operation that the nodule removed from the king’s right lung was not cancerous.

“It is not malignant, we have ruled out that it could be lung cancer,” the doctor said.

He said the king was awake and would be able to leave the hospital in three or four days, before returning to non-physical activity in around two weeks.

The king used to be a heavy smoker but has not been seen smoking in public in recent years. The palace declined to say whether he had stopped.