Timeline of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford's cancer fight

Rob Ford is photographed in his backyard during an interview ahead of his surgery on May 11.

TORONTO -- Former Toronto mayor Rob Ford has been fighting a rare type of cancer since last fall. Some key dates:

Sept. 10, 2014: Ford is admitted to hospital after complaining for months of abdominal pain. Doctors discover a tumour and a biopsy is done the next day after he is transferred to the downtown Toronto Mount Sinai Hospital.

Sept. 17: Dr. Zane Cohen of Mount Sinai Hospital tells a news conference Ford has been diagnosed with malignant liposarcoma, which arises in soft tissue structures and makes up about one per cent of cancers. He says Ford will undergo two rounds of chemotherapy treatment over the next 40 days.

Feb. 26, 2015: Ford says he's finished several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, and doctors will perform an MRI to determine if the tumour is small enough to operate.

April 2, 2015: Ford says the tumour has shrunk to about 5.6 by 5.3 by 4.5 centimetres -- roughly half of what it was when he started therapy -- which was enough to operate. He says another tumour, in his back, had disappeared.

May 11: Ford has surgery to remove a cancerous tumour -- about five centimetres in size -- from his abdomen. The surgery is expected to last more than 10 hours and the recovery will take at least four months.