Drug scandal mayor faces fight against rare cancer

TORONTO’S embattled mayor Rob Ford has a rare and difficult to treat cancer that will require aggressive chemotherapy, his doctor said yesterday.

Rob Ford was caught on video apparently smoking crack. Picture: Getty

The revelation came days after Mr Ford announced he was pulling out of a re-election ­campaign.

Dr Zane Cohen, a colorectal surgeon at Mount Sinai hospital, said Mr Ford has malignant liposarcoma. He has been hospitalised for a week with a tumour in his abdomen.

Dr Cohen said the cancer was spreading and that they had found “a small nodule” near the mayor’s left hip. He said Mr Ford will receive chemotherapy within the next two days.

“We think it’s fairly an aggressive tumour,” Dr Cohen said. “We’re treating this very aggressively in order to eradicate it.”

Dr Cohen said a 2011 scan had found no tumour.

Mr Ford’s cancer, said Dr Cohen, makes up only about 1 per cent of all cancers but he was optimistic about his prognosis. He said Mr Ford will get two cycles of chemotherapy over the next 40 days in a bid to shrink the tumour. He said surgery may or may not be necessary.

“We are optimistic about treatment. This particular liposarcoma is more sensitive to chemotherapy than most sarcomas,” Dr Cohen said.

The tumour is about 12cms by 12cms and is about two or three years old, said Dr Cohen, who added the cancer had not spread to other organs.

The mayor withdrew his re-election bid after doggedly seeking to hold on to office amid calls for him to quit following drug and alcohol scandals and a stint in rehab.

Doug Ford, who is running for mayor in his stead, said: “My brother has been diagnosed with cancer and I can’t begin to share how devastating this has been for Rob and our family.

“He remains upbeat and determined to fight this.

“Rob will beat this.”

Mr Ford, who is married with two children under the age of ten, checked himself into a hospital last week after complaining of stomach pain.

“He’s having some pain still,” Dr Cohen said. “We are managing that.”

Doug Ford snr, the mayor’s father, died of colon cancer in 2006.

Mr Ford, 45, gained notoriety last year when the existence of a video apparently showing him inhaling from a crack pipe was revealed by the media. He denied its existence for months but finally admitted using crack in a “drunken stupor” after police said they had a copy.

When reports emerged this year of a second video showing him apparently smoking crack, Mr Ford entered rehab for two months and returned to work and campaigning in June.

He now plans to run for a city council seat for his home suburb of Etobicoke.