Ben Sasse reveals terminal cancer, points to faith in Christ

Former Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., revealed Tuesday that he has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and expects to die soon, but expressed hope in Jesus Christ and Heaven amid his suffering.

“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 wrote in an X post. “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’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, ‘Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.’ Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all,” he continued.

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

Sasse, who represented Nebraska in the U.S. Senate from 2015 to 2023, went on to express love for his wife, Melissa, and pride in the recent accomplishments of his three children — his daughters, Corrie and Alex, and his 14-year-old son, Breck.

“I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints,” he said of his family.

Acknowledging the difficulty of announcing a terminal diagnosis, Sasse noted that “the season of advent isn’t the worst” time to do so, given its message of hope — the true nature of which he said he is coming to understand as he looks toward eternity.

“As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come. Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in).”

“Nope — often we lazily say ‘hope’ when what we mean is ‘optimism.’ To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son. A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff,” he continued.

“That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears. Such is the calling of the pilgrim.”

Sasse concluded by pointing to Jesus, noting those who know they “need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment.”

“That is, 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 said.

The promise of Isaiah fulfilled in Jesus “doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings,” Sasse said, but it provides an eternal perspective. He noted he isn’t “going down without a fight,” and said he will pursue the available cancer treatments.

“But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: ‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. … For to us a son is given’ (Isaiah 9).”

The life expectancy of someone diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer is typically less than a year, according to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

During an address to seminarians at Westminster Theological Seminary of California in 2016, Sasse emphasized that Christians are citizens of a heavenly kingdom and urged them to prioritize their citizenship in the Kingdom of God.

“Christians should realize that we have always been living in exile,” and this earthly kingdom is not our true home, Sasse said at the time.

Before resigning mid-term in 2023 to serve as president of the University of Florida, Sasse first won election to the U.S. Senate in 2014 with a landslide victory, winning all of Nebraska’s 93 counties. He secured reelection in 2020 with record support, and his Senate career focused on cybersecurity threats, First Amendment issues and conservative judicial nominations.