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

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.

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)," he noted. "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."

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

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.