Rob Ford, the former mayor of Toronto who gained global notoriety for admitting to smoking crack cocaine while in office, has died. He was 46.

Ford had been moved into palliative care after his recent cancer treatment was unsuccessful, CP24 television reported.

His chief of staff, Dan Jacobs, told CP24 the move was to make Ford more comfortable and was not end-of-life care. Jacobs did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Ford, now a Toronto city councillor, has been receiving treatment for an aggressive form of cancer that reoccurred despite surgery and several rounds of chemotherapy.

During his tumultuous 2010-2014 tenure as mayor of Canada's most populous city, Ford admitted to smoking crack cocaine, buying illegal drugs and driving after drinking alcohol.

Ford was diagnosed in September 2014 with pleomorphic liposarcoma, a rare and hard-to-treat cancer found in soft, fatty tissue of the body, after he was admitted to a hospital with abdominal pain.