Rob Ford pursues precision treatment in battle against rare cancer

The brother of Toronto Coun. Rob Ford says the former mayor is pursuing atargeted therapyin his fight against a rare and aggressive form of soft tissue cancer.

Doug Fordtold CBC News Monday the family is doing whatever it takes to find an effective treatment toridthe 46-year-old ofpleomorphic liposarcoma.

"He's in a real battle so I'm just not leaving any stone unturned," Doug Ford said."It's such a rare disease."

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The former mayor is being treated at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto where the Panovprogram, named after YaronPanov,is being made available to help individualize cancer care. Ituses a treatment called precision chemotherapy.

Doug Fordsaid he learned of the therapy after hearing fromPanovand his wife, Dr. RochelleSchwartz, who live in Vaughan, Ont.Panovwas diagnosed with an abdominal sarcoma in 2010 and was only given a few months to live.

Dr. David Sidransky, an American physician and researcher who teaches at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,spoke to CBC News via Skype from Israel. He saidthat manycancer patients have undergonethe therapy in the U.S.

"What we do is we take a piece of tissue from the patient's tumour, we put it in the skin of the mouse and we let it grow. When it grows, we then transfer it to more mice until there's a colony of mice that we can then test for the specific drug for the patient," said Sidransky, who is the founder ofa firm called Champions Oncology.

The mice have been bred without immune systems. Onceinjected,the cancertakes about three months to grow in the animals.Researchers then test different chemotherapy treatmentson the rodentsto see which drugsaremost effective in decreasing the size of the tumours.

An '80 to 90%' chance

Sidransky acknowledged precision therapy hasn't been approved by U.S. regulatory agencies and is not yet covered by health insurance companies.

"About 80 per cent of the tumours that we implant actually work, that is they take on the mouse and the mouse colony can be formed and then the next step is actually testing the drugs," he explained.

"When we test drugs, the prediction is between 80 and 90 per cent, so then we find a drug that works on the mouse colony, [there's a]80 to 90 per cent [chance] it works on the patient, as well."

Doug Ford said 12 mice have been given his brother's cancer and now they're waiting to see which treatment willwork best .

Panov says the therapy has given him a new lease on life.

Panov and Dr. Rochelle Schwartz: Benefits of precision therapy

9 years ago

Duration 0:27

Panov and his wife, Dr. Rochelle Schwartz, discuss benefits of precision therapy. Panov was diagnosed with an abdominal sarcoma in 2010 and was only given a few months to live.

"My cancer always comes back,but from the patient'spoint of view, I know if thatchemowas tested on the mice, I know it will work. That's huge,"Panovsaid. "Because usually people getchemowithout knowing what will be the end result."

More than $1 million has been raised on the hospital'swebsitein support of thePanovprogram.

Rob Ford was first diagnosed with cancer in September 2014. The married father of two underwent chemotherapy and radiation before havingsurgery to revove an abdominala tumour last May. In October, he said the cancer had returned and two growths on his bladder were discovered.

"It's the type of cancer that does spread. I just have to deal with it," he said last fall.