Fears that Rob Ford is facing a life-threatening illness were confirmed on Wednesday, when his doctor revealed that the mayor has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
Dr. Zane Cohen, lead member of the mayor’s clinical care team, made the announcement to a room packed with journalists in the basement of Mount Sinai Hospital’s Murray Street building just after 5 pm.
According to Cohen, an internationally-renowned colorectal surgeon, the mayor has what’s known as a malignant liposarcoma in his abdomen. It’s a rare type of growth that makes up around one per cent of all cancers. It does not attach to one particular organ, but grows on the body’s soft tissues like fat, nervous tissues, and blood vessels.
Cohen said the adominal tumour is about 12 by 12 centimetres, and that the cancer has spread from Ford’s abdomen to what the doctor described as a “small nodule in the buttock behind the left hip.” He clarified that reports Ford had undergone a biopsy to test a mass in his lungs were incorrect.
“We think it’s a fairly aggressive tumour,” said Cohen. But he added he was “optimistic” about the mayor’s prognosis because the type of liposarcoma Ford is battling is more responsive to chemotherapy than others, and the mayor will receive top quality care at Mount Sinai.
“We are treating this very aggressively in order to eradicate the tumour,” Cohen said.
Within the next 48 hours the mayor will undergo three days of in-patient chemotherapy, followed by an 18-day “washout period.” The cycle will be repeated and then the mayor will be reassessed. Depending on Ford’s response further treatment, including radiation or surgery, could be required, Cohen said. The mayor should be able to leave the hospital in between the first and second rounds of chemo treatment.
But Cohen would not say what stage the cancer has reached, whether Ford can be expected to make a full recovery, or what the survival rate is for this type of cancer.
Ford remains at Mount Sinai Wednesday night, where he has been since being transferred from Humber River Hospital Thursday, September 11. Members of his family have been in and out of the hospital for the past week visiting the mayor but were not at the press conference.
In a statement emailed to media, however, the mayor’s brother Councillor Doug Ford called the diagnosis “devastating” but declared “Rob will beat this.” He thanked the public for their “continued support and prayers.”
News that Ford was facing a serious health battle was not unexpected. The mayor himself raised alarms on Saturday when he told the Toronto Sun’s Joe Warmington, “I guess the good Lord wants me somewhere else.”
As the city waited for definitive word on Ford’s health this week, the most closely watched election in Toronto’s history was thrown into limbo. Although Councillor Ford registered to run in his brother’s place in a sensational swap at the nomination deadline last Friday, September 12, the councillor has yet to start campaigning, aside from a speech that evening to formally announce his entry into the race. The Ford Fest party scheduled for Friday, September 19 in Etobicoke has also been postponed until further notice.
A mayoral debate scheduled Wednesday evening between the two other major candidates, John Tory and Olivia Chow, was cancelled “out of respect for Mayor Ford,” according to organizers. The mood of the campaign was such that earlier in the day Chow and Tory toned down their attacks on each other at a lunchtime debate at the National Club, exchanging polite remarks about their respective platforms and mostly avoiding criticism of the Fords.
Following Cohen’s announcement, Tory and Chow momentarily set aside politics and spoke to reporters at back-to-back press conferences behind City Hall.
In a prepared statement Tory said “if Torontonians know one thing about their Mayor it is that he is a fighter. Now that he is in the fight of his life I know all Torontonians are pulling for him.” Tory asked Torontonians to “to say a prayer or summon a kind thought for our Mayor and the entire Ford family tonight.”
Chow, who lost her husband Jack Layton to cancer in 2011, had this advice as Ford undergoes treatment: “stay hopeful, stay optmistic.”
For almost a decade and a half Ford was a seemingly inexhaustible force at City Hall, infuriating colleagues and many residents with his blustery, mostly unsuccessful crusades against government spending, streetcars and everything else he associated with “downtown elites.”
Although he won few council votes in his 10 years as councillor, along the way he tapped into a pool of alienated residents who became fiercely loyal to the rough-edged politician and carried him to a shock victory in the 2010 mayoral election.
Remarkably resilient to the controversies that snowballed throughout his term, including accusations of homophobia and reports of alleged domestic abuse, not even the drugs and gang scandal that exploded last year could convince him to step down. His popularity remained buoyant, and earlier this month he was polling in second place behind Tory.
But Ford was stopped short last week when he was hospitalized with stomach pains. He was diagnosed with an unknown abdominal tumour on Wednesday, and withdrew from the mayoral election on Friday.
Ford is still registered to run for council in Ward 2 Etobicoke North, the area he represented from 2000 to 2010. Despite being incapacitated, he’s a strong favourite to win.
bens@nowtoronto.com | @BenSpurr
