TORONTO - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford will spend the next few days undergoing his first round of chemotherapy to treat a rare and aggressive type of cancer, while his brother is gearing up to launch his campaign for the city's top job.
Ford was diagnosed Wednesday with malignant liposarcoma — a type of cancer that arises from fat cells and can attack a variety of soft tissues.
Doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital said the abdominal tumour, which is 12 centimetres by 12 centimetres in size, is an aggressive tumour that is being met with an equally aggressive treatment.
Dr. Zane Cohen, who is leading the 45-year-old mayor's care team, said they also found a small nodule in Ford's buttock which is part of the same tumour.
Liposarcoma is particularly "sensitive" to chemotherapy, but Ford may undergo surgery or radiation treatments depending on how the cancer responds to chemotherapy, Dr. Cohen said.
He refused to estimate a survival rate for this type of cancer, which makes up about one per cent of cancers, but said he was optimistic about the treatment plan.
In 2010, 1,175 Canadians were diagnosed with soft-tissue sarcoma; about 470 died of the disease in 2009, according to the Canadian Cancer Society, which cited the most recent years for which statistics are available.
Ford's father, former Ontario politician and businessman Doug Ford Sr., died in 2006 of colon cancer three months after he was diagnosed with the disease.
The mayor's stunning diagnosis came a week after he went to hospital complaining of "unbearable pain." At the time, doctors told a hastily-called news conference they had found a tumour in his abdomen, although they didn't know if it was cancerous. Dr. Cohen said it took two biopsies to determine that the tumour was cancerous.
The mayor's brother, Coun. Doug Ford, said Wednesday that his younger sibling was devastated by the diagnosis but is determined to fight the disease.
Rob Ford withdrew his candidacy for re-election as mayor last week, opting to run as a councillor in the same ward he had represented for a decade before being elected to the top job in 2010. His brother decided to run in his stead, but has yet to launch his mayoral campaign.
Doug Ford won't start campaigning Thursday or take part in the mayoral debate that night, said his spokesman Jeff Silverstein.
He will kick off his campaign "soon," Silverstein said, but didn't provide a specific date. However, his campaign team has created a website and Twitter account.
News of Toronto's mayor having cancer made headlines around the world and has drawn expressions of sympathy from politicians of all stripes, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Rob Ford — who has turned into an international celebrity due to a series of scandals touched off by reports of a video appearing to show him smoking crack cocaine — returned to office just over two months ago after a stint in rehab for substance abuse issues.
His role as mayor has been largely symbolic since last November, when he was stripped of most of his powers following his admissions of alcohol abuse and drug use during "drunken stupors.''
