Posted on 09/17/2014 2:26:50 PM PDT by Squawk 8888
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been diagnosed with a rare type of cancer, his doctor said Wednesday.
“It is a difficult and very rare type of tumour,” Dr. Zane Cohen said in Wednesday evening press conference, describing Ford’s cancer as a malignant liposarcoma.
“It’s a fairly aggressive tumour.”
Dr. Cohen said he is “optimistic” that chemotherapy could be successful. There is a tumour in his abdomen and one in his buttocks, the surgeon said.
Dr. Cohen is an expert colorectal surgeon and is leading Ford’s medical team.
Liposarcoma is a tumour that comes from fat cells in deep, soft tissue.
Numerous members of the Ford family visited Mount Sinai Hospital Wednesday, saying little to the media.
Mayor Ford was admitted to hospital last Wednesday after complaining of severe abdominal pain. On Thursday, doctors said a significant mass was found in his abdomen.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
Thanks for the ping.
Sounds serious,but miracles do happen.
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I'm on the thin side - when I was getting an abdominal ultrasound to confirm that my gallbladder had turned into a beanbag, I asked the tech if the job's tougher when working on porkers.
She gave me a big "Hell yeah" and said they often use some 'markers' system to even find the various organs.
I always thought he had brain problems.
I thought he was awful. Truly the embodiment of all that is evil in politics today. I will never forget him running over a fellow (female!)council member during one of his sprees. I admit: I’m a puritan when it comes to government. I want people clean and straight - not drug-crazed addicts running the show.
That said, I hope he recovers.
There are high grade and low grade sarcomas. Liposarcomas are misdiagnoses a lot. I hope his pathologist is good or maybe gets a consult.
misdiagnoses = misdiagnosed.
I guess I have heard too many stories of folks coming to US hospitals for treatment. Haven't heard many recently, but about 8 to 10 years ago they were fairly common.
Good luck to him.
We had a really bad shortage of doctors for several years due primarily to the mismanagement of a socialist government in Ontario during the early 1990s. They decided that the best way to save money on the health care budget would be to reduce the number of MDs, and slashed the number of available medical school placements. Predictably, the shortages started to become an issue by 2000, and as recently as 2009 there were no GPs accepting new patients.
One way Canada has benefitted from Obamacare is that it stopped the brain drain of Canadian doctors & nurses fleeing to the USA.
Most of the chaos was actually created by the downtown councillors who resisted the reforms he was implementing. In spite of his train wreck of a personal life, he actually improved the way the city operates to the point that nearly a third of the voters wanted to re-elect him.
After this multibillion gambling deal sizzled, the attacks on his personal life suddenly started. I believe it is connection worth investigating.
There is even fiction book based on Ford as a mayor.
Two friends with sarcomas - both dead within a year of diagnosis. One relative with a sarcoma (Leiomyosarcoma) who got lucky - they discovered it while it was fairly “small” and evidently got it all with surgery (the ‘gold standard’ for LMS) since she’s made it 10 years. Sarcomas, as a group, are relatively resistant to chemotherapy and radiation, although there is variation within the group. For liposarcomas, surgery is the primary treatment. The combination of surgery and radiation therapy has been shown to prevent recurrence at the surgical site in about 85-90% of liposarcoma cases. The role of chemotherapy in the treatment of liposarcoma is not clearly defined, but it may be recommended in certain situations where patients are at high risk of recurrence or already have widespread disease. Since chemo is what they’re talking about for Ford (not surgery) and he has a “significant mass”, this doesn’t sound very promising to me.
Prayers for him.
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