Addiction expert not surprised by Ford’s health issue

The head of an addiction services agency in Toronto says, due to Rob Ford’s alcoholism, he’s not surprised the mayor has developed an abdominal tumour.

“He drank a lot,” said Dennis Long, executive director of Breakaway Addiction Services.

People who consume a lot of alcohol develop digestive tract issues, including intestinal polyps and masses in the gut, he said.

“Most are related to alcohol consumption at high levels,” he added.

On Wednesday, officials at Humber River Hospital said a CT scan revealed Ford had a “not small” tumour in his abdomen after he checked himself into hospital for severe pain.

Long, who isn’t a doctor, said that doctors will likely treat Ford’s pain with analgesics, like Tylenol 3, or opiates such as Demerol, Oxycontin and morphine to manage the severe pain. He said the opiates shouldn’t be an issue for him because, as far as he knows, the mayor has never been dependent on them.

“Use of any opiates will create a physiological dependence,” Long said. “But doctors are very good at managing that.”

Humber CEO Dr. Rueben Devlin said additional tests including a biopsy were needed to determine what type of tumour Ford has and whether it’s malignant.

The abdomen is home to multiple organs — the stomach, liver, pancreas, small intestine and colon — and abdominal pain could be a symptom of several forms of disease.

The most common benign tumours in the stomach are polyps or epithelial tumours, which make up about 75 per cent of all benign tumours, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Also common are leiomyomas.

In the duodenum, the most common benign tumours are adenoma, leiomyomas and lipomas.

Treatment for benign tumours of the stomach and duodenum are many and varied, including endoscopic surgery for small ones and surgical operations for pancreatic lesions and cysts, the NCBI said.

Malignant tumours

Doctors will likely consider the possibility of colorectal cancer since Ford’s father, Doug Ford Sr., died of colon cancer in 2006 — just months after it was diagnosed.

Rob Ford himself had abdominal surgery in 2009 to remove a tumour on his appendix.

How would colon cancer be detected and handled?

If doctors suspect colon cancer, they will likely use X-rays to try to identify whether the cancer is outside of the bowel or inside.

A colonoscopy, a procedure involving the snaking of a scope that examines the entire large intestine and rectum, would follow to take samples of tumour tissue to be analyzed.

The biopsied tissue would reveal whether the tumour is cancerous and, if it is, the type and stage of the disease.

As well, Humber’s Dr. Devlin said Ford’s doctors will be looking to see if the tumour has spread.

Most common cancers

Colorectal, breast, lung and prostate cancer are the most common types of cancer in Canada (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer), according to the Canadian Cancer Society. Based on 2014 estimates, these cancers account for over half (52 per cent) of all new cancer cases.

  • Prostate cancer accounts for about one-quarter (24 per cent) of all new cancer cases in men.
  • Breast cancer accounts for about one-quarter (26 per cent) of all new cancer cases in women.
  • Colorectal cancer accounts for 13 per cent of all new cancer cases.
  • Lung cancer accounts for 14 per cent of all new cases of cancer.

With files from The Canadian Press

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