Former GOP Sen. Ben Sasse reveals stage-4 cancer diagnosis: 'It's a death sentence'

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Former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska announced on Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with metastatic stage-four pancreatic cancer, candidly calling it "a death sentence."

"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 a post on X.

"Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do," he continued.

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Then-Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., walks through the Senate Subway on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Sasse, who is just 53 years old, noted, "I’ve got less time than I’d prefer." 

But he also expressed his eternal hope, noting that he is a Christian.

"As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come," he wrote. 

"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," he noted.

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Then-Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., speaks during Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Feb. 22, 2021 in Washington, D.C.  (Al Drago/Getty Images)

"Those who know ourselves to 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 wrote.

Sasse served in the Senate from early 2015 through early 2023, then went on to serve as president of the University of Florida.

Last year he stepped down from the helm of the university, pointing to his wife's epilepsy diagnosis.

"My wife Melissa’s recent epilepsy diagnosis and a new batch of memory issues have been hard, but we’re facing it together," he noted in explaining his move last year. "Our two wonderful daughters are in college, but our youngest is just turning 13. Gator Nation needs a president who can keep charging hard, Melissa deserves a husband who can pull his weight, and my kids need a dad who can be home many more nights. I need to step back and rebuild more stable household systems for a time."

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FILE - Sen. Ben Sasse speaks during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Jan. 19, 2021, in Washington D.C.  (Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Getty Images)

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Vice President JD Vance was among those who responded to Sasse's grim cancer announcement on Tuesday.

"I'm very sorry to hear this Ben. May God bless you and your family," Vance wrote.

Sasse noted in his message, "I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

"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)," he wrote.