Rob Ford set for chemotherapy

Toronto doctor Zane Cohen on Wednesday said that Rob Ford was suffering from malignant lipsarcoma, a type of cancerous tumor that arises in fat cells, calling the condition "very rare" and "very difficult" to treat.

"The plan will be, initially, chemotherapy," said Cohen. "There may or may not be radiation involved, there may or there may not be surgery involved, it will all depend on the response to the initial treatment, and subsequent treatments as well."

Doctors found the tumor last week, confirming it was cancerous on Wednesday. Cohen said the cancer was spreading and that scans had revealed "a small nodule in the buttock" near Ford's left hip. However, he also said it had not spread to any organs.

"We are optimistic about the treatment. This particular liposarcoma is more sensitive to chemotherapy than most sarcomas," the doctor said.

Ford checked himself into hospital last week with abdominal pains; he dropped his bid for re-election as Toronto's mayor minutes ahead of a September 12 deadline. His brother and former campaign manager, Doug Ford, took over the mayoral campaign.

"My brother has been diagnosed with cancer and I can't begin to share how devastating this has been for Rob and our family," Doug Ford said in a statement. "He is an incredible person, husband, father, brother and son and he remains upbeat and determined to fight this. Rob will beat this."

Ford's father Doug Ford Sr., also a politician, died of colon cancer in 2006.

Prior to Ford's sudden withdrawal from the mayoral race with illness, the 45-year-old had resisted controversy and calls for him to quit, mainly focused around alcohol and substance abuse. At first he had denied the veracity of a video claiming to show him smoking from a crack pipe, before later saying he might have tried crack cocaine "in one of my drunken stupors."

Other compromising footage kept the mayor close to Canadian and sometimes international front pages, such as a video of him speaking Jamaican patois in a bar weeks after telling broadcaster CBC that he would never drink again, and an acrimonious public argument with a journalist.

Ford checked into a rehab clinic earlier in the year for treatment, emerging notably thinner. In response to the gaffe-prone mayor's troubled tenure, the Toronto City Council drastically limited his political powers in November of 2013.

msh/jr (AFP, AP, Reuters)