Former Senator Ben Sasse, 53, Reveals Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosis in Emotional Holiday Letter

Former Nebraska senator Ben Sasse has revealed that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer — and that doctors have told him it is terminal.

In an emotional holiday letter shared on X on Dec. 23, the 53-year-old wrote that the diagnosis came just a week earlier and that he intends to face it head-on.

“Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die,” Sasse wrote. “Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.”

Sasse reflected on the reality of mortality and spoke lovingly of his family and closest friends, saying he is “blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers.” He added, “Death is a wicked thief, and it chases us all.”

Sasse served as a U.S. senator from 2015 until 2023. He was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict former President Donald Trump during Trump’s second impeachment trial. After resigning from the Senate, Sasse briefly served as president of the University of Florida before stepping down to focus on his family when his wife was diagnosed with epilepsy.

In his letter, Sasse admitted that he has “less time than I’d prefer,” especially as a husband and father, and acknowledged how difficult those conversations have been. He framed the timing of the announcement within the Advent season, saying it is a period of “hope for what’s to come.”

He distinguished that hope from simple optimism, writing that optimism alone is not enough “when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle, or tell your parents they’re going to bury their son.” A meaningful life, he said, requires “stiffer stuff.”

Sasse added that despite the prognosis, he is determined to keep fighting. He expressed gratitude for recent advancements in medicine and immunotherapy and said that while death is inevitable, “the process of dying is still something to be lived.” He shared that his family is leaning on dark humor as they face treatment together.

He closed the letter with a message of peace for the holiday season, quoting the book of Isaiah and signing off on behalf of himself and his family, writing that he is “not going down without a fight.”

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, ranking as the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. Because symptoms rarely appear early and there is no standard screening test, it is often not detected until later stages. The five-year survival rate remains under 13%, according to the National Cancer Institute.