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With blood on his face, he sat down with former Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse The New York Times To open up about his painful experience with terminal cancer
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Sasse, 54, was diagnosed with stage 4 inoperable pancreatic cancer in mid-December and said he found out his “torso was full of tumours”.
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The new medication he was prescribed greatly improved his condition, but it caused him to “not bleed all over my body” because his body couldn’t grow new skin properly.
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Despite his progress, Sasse said he’s aware he doesn’t have much time left
Former Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse is shedding light on his harrowing journey with terminal cancer.
The former Republican senator and brief president of the University of Florida, 54, appeared The New York Times‘ podcast with a significant amount of blood on his face, less than four months after he was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. At the time, Sasse described the diagnosis as a “death sentence.”
Speaking with podcast host and columnist Ross Douthat, Sasse opened up about his death, and why he chose to speak publicly during his remaining days.
“In the middle of December I got a three to four month life expectancy, and I’ve been on day 99 or something since then, and I’m doing a lot better than I did at Christmas,” Sasse shared. “But even with three-four months to live, you have to bide your time.”
“There’s only unsolicited advice I can give my kids,” he added, so he’s happy to give what he can to reporters who are willing to listen.
Sasse said he first realized something was wrong in late October 2025. Her favorite way to stay fit was sprint triathlon, and while training during that time, she felt more back and stomach pain than usual. At first, he thought he had just pulled a muscle.
By November 2025, the pain was severe enough that she decided to seek medical attention. His doctor ran several tests that revealed nothing, so Sasse’s doctor referred him to a gastroenterologist, believing the cause might be undiagnosed celiac or lactose intolerance.
He went for a full body scan in December and the doctor called him 45 minutes later.
“You could hear them hemming and hawing. I said, ‘Stop beating around the bush. Give me the hard facts,'” Sasse recalled. After a few minutes of insistence, the doctor said bluntly, “Here’s a hard fact: Ben Sasse’s torso is full of tumors.”
His doctor immediately told him that his cancer — stage 4 pancreatic cancer, which had already metastasized — was inoperable. In the days that followed, he learned that he had at least five types of cancer: lymphoma, vascular, lung, liver and pancreatic cancer. “So, it was very clear that we had a few months left to live,” he said.
Sasse said the diagnosis “isn’t the scariest thing for me,” because death is inevitable. He immediately wanted to know what his options were – “You have a certain death sentence, but there are some clinical trials that can extend life a little bit,” he said – and he learned that genetic mutations can be researched through clinical trials across the country.
Since leaving the Senate, Sasse has served as president of the University of Florida, but clinical trials took him and his wife, Melissa, to New York City, then Houston. Currently, he is living in Austin near some friends, and commuting to Houston two days a week for a maximum of two hours.
His current treatment is a drug called daraxonrasib, which thankfully can be taken by mouth, Sasse said.
“I take it orally, but it’s a bad drug. It causes crazy things like my skin can’t grow and so I have to bleed all over parts of me that shouldn’t bleed,” he said, though he added, “I feel better than I deserve.”
Ben Sasse is sworn in to the Senate on January 6, 2015, surrounded by his family.
Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Most of his treatment, Sasse added, is pain management. When he was first diagnosed, he was on 55 milligrams of morphine and was “high as a kite,” but has recently been able to reduce the dose to about 30 milligrams per day.
“I’m in the pharmacy every day. I’m employing a lot of people in that industry right now,” he joked.
“I would say my pain is 80% down from where it started,” he said. “I manage a lot of nausea. Have strong waves of the urge to puke. And when I’m not bleeding from the face, I’m really good with puke. I mean, I don’t like it, but you can throw up and you’re over it. So, anyway, enough crying.”
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When asked about the bruise on his face, Sasse said it felt “nuclear”. But since the end of December, the size of his tumor has decreased by 76 percent, he said.
Still, Sasse explained, it’s not a realistic hope for him to fully recover. He compared his cancer treatment to a “Whac-A-Mole,” in which there is always a new cancer popping up, even when dealing with old bits, or a dam that has already begun to burst.
“Is there anyone who has gotten better from stage 4 [pancreatic cancer]?” Duthat asked. Sasse replied, “Not with what I have, no.”
Read the original article on People
