Growth removed from Spanish king's lung

BARCELONA, Spain, May 8 (UPI) -- Doctors in Barcelona Saturday removed a non-cancerous growth from the right lung of Spain's King Juan Carlos, officials said.

The operation successfully removed a small benign nodule discovered during the 72-year-old monarch's annual medical tests last month, BarcelonaNews.Net reported. Doctors at University Hospital Clinic said Juan Carlos was doing well after surgery and pathologists had ruled out cancer, CNN reported.

"It is not malignant, we have ruled out that it could be lung cancer," Dr. Laureano Molins told a news conference. Molins said the king could be discharged from the hospital in three or four days, the Spanish news agency EFE said.

Juan Carlos has been on the Spanish throne since November 1975, two days after the death of dictator Francisco Franco.