{"id":51614,"date":"2025-12-23T09:48:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T15:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=51614"},"modified":"2025-12-23T21:50:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T03:50:04","slug":"ben-sasse-diagnosed-with-stage-4-pancreatic-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=51614","title":{"rendered":"Ben Sasse diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former Sen. Ben Sasse\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Neb.) announced Tuesday he has been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former two-term senator, 53, wrote in a lengthy social media post<\/u><\/a> that he received the diagnosis last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I\u2019ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die,\u201d Sasse continued. \u201cAdvanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it\u2019s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too \u2014 we all do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, \u2018Sure, you\u2019re on the clock, but we\u2019re all on the clock.\u2019 Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nebraska Republican added, \u201cI\u2019ll have more to say. I\u2019m not going down without a fight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne sub-part of God\u2019s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more,\u201d he wrote near the end of the post. \u201cDeath and dying aren\u2019t the same \u2014 the process of dying is still something to be lived. We\u2019re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I\u2019ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sasse retired from the upper chamber<\/u><\/a> in 2023, having grown frustrated in his final years in office, to become president<\/u><\/a> of the University of Florida. He left that post after more than a year due to the health of his wife, Melissa, in light of \u201crecent epilepsy diagnosis and a new batch of memory issues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also noted he has spent recent months growing closer with his wife and ticked through what his children have been accomplishing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a good time to tell your peeps you\u2019re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer \u2014 but the season of advent isn\u2019t the worst,\u201d the former lawmaker wrote. \u201cAs a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what\u2019s to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sasse had stayed on at the university to teach classes at its Hamilton Center. Prior to his tenure in the Senate, he was a professor at the University of Texas, served as an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services and was president of Midland University in his home state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ex-Nebraska senator is not the only upper chamber figure to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-Nev.) died from it in 2021 after a four-year battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Sen. Ben Sasse\u2002(R-Neb.) announced Tuesday he has been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. The former two-term senator, 53, wrote in a lengthy social media post that he received the diagnosis last week. \u201cThis is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I\u2019ll cut to the chase: Last week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":51615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5784],"tags":[29913,23452,35750],"class_list":["post-51614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-ben","tag-diagnosed","tag-sasse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51614"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51617,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51614\/revisions\/51617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}