Former Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse announced Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
The former two-term senator revealed in a lengthy note posted to social media that he learned about the disease last week.
“This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die,” Sasse began. “Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week, too — we all do.”
“I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad,” he continued, adding that he was not “going down without a fight.”
Friends-
This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.
Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence.…
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) December 23, 2025
The 53-year-old pointed out that finding out the news during Advent is allowing him to focus on what is truly important.
“As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come,” Sasse expressed. “…we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.”
He added, “Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective: ‘When we’ve been there 10,000 years…We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise.’
Sasse resigned from the Senate in January 2023 to take a position as the president of the University of Florida.
Please pray for the former senator and his family.
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