Former Nebraska-U.S. Senator Ben Sasse provided an update Thursday on his battle with stage IV pancreatic cancer.
Sasse, 53, announced his diagnosis in December, writing frankly on social media, “It’s a death sentence.”
The Midwest statesman turned brief university president said he wouldn’t go down without a fight, originally given “three or four months” to live. Stage IV pancreatic cancer has a relative survival rate of about 3%.
Calling into LNK Today with Jack and Friends on 1400 & 99.3 KLIN, Sasse said he’s receiving treatment at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas—considered by many to be the top-ranked cancer hospital in the U.S.
“I’m very blessed to have an unbelievable team,” Sasse said. “I now have five kinds of cancer. It started in the pancreas and moved on to other places in a stealthy way. I’m in a super aggressive clinical trial. I’m way post-surgical. There’s no point in cutting out the tumors because I got way too many. We’re delivering max doses of poison to the tumors to see if we could live 12 months instead of three. I’m trying to redeem the time. I’m grateful for this time with my family and for some really good docs.”
Sasse said he’s had noticeable reductions in tumor size over the first two months of the trial, but admitted “we know this doesn’t end well. But death doesn’t get the final word either.”
Despite years of public service, Sasse said he has no illusions about the finitude of life.
“I know that nothing that I’ve built or will build is going to last. It’s foolish to think our storehouses are permanent, but you’d still like to do something meaningful with the time,” he said. “Let’s not stupidly think we’re going to build heaven on earth. We’re not. We’re on a pilgrimage. But that doesn’t mean you do nothing either.”
Sasse said the pain from treatment requires high doses of morphine, causing him to “sleep all the time.” But in his waking hours, Sasse focuses on spending time with his kids, writing columns for The Wall Street Journal, and launching his irreverently named new podcast, Not Dead Yet — inspired by the “gallows humor of Monty Python.”
The first episode of Not Dead Yet with co-host Chris Stirewalt launched Thursday, with forthcoming guest appearances from Conan O’Brien, Mike Rowe and Al Michaels.
“Turns out, if you’re dying and you call guys up and ask them to come on your podcast, they’ll say ‘Okay,'” he said, with that amused cynicism.
Sasse said, to him, death is “the final enemy.”
“It’s a terrible, terrible thing. But it’s pretty great, too, that it’s final,” he said, describing how treatment has “melted” his muscles away, dropping 24 pounds since his diagnosis.
Sasse served as U.S. Senator for Nebraska from 2015 to 2023. He then took the job as president of the University of Florida and resigned a year later after his wife was diagnosed with epilepsy.
Listen to the full interview below. Skip to 1:29:40 for Sasse’s interview.