(Reuters) – Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has a very rare and aggressive type of cancerous tumour in his abdomen, his doctor said yesterday, and the controversial municipal leader will start chemotherapy treatment within days.
Ford, who made international headlines with his admission that he smoked crack cocaine while in office, was hospitalised last week after having unbearable abdominal pains. He dropped out of the city’s hotly contested mayoral race last week.
In a briefing yesterday, Toronto doctor Zane Cohen said the mayor had malignant liposarcoma, a type of cancerous tumour that arises in fat cells in deep soft tissue.
Cohen, a colorectal surgeon Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital, called it a “very rare” and “very difficult” type of tumour, noting that malignant liposarcoma makes up just 1 per cent of all cancers. However, he was also optimistic about Ford’s treatment prospects.
