前内布拉斯加州参议员本·萨斯(Ben Sasse)周二分享了他被诊断患有晚期胰腺癌的消息。
“上周，我被诊断出患有转移的第四期胰腺癌，我就要死了，”53岁的萨斯写道在X上的一篇帖子中星期二。
“晚期胰腺是令人讨厌的东西;这是死刑。但是在上周之前我也已经被判了死刑——我们都被判了死刑……死亡是一个邪恶的小偷，这个混蛋追捕我们所有人。尽管如此，我的时间还是比我希望的要少。这对一个努力工作和建设的人来说很难，但作为丈夫和父亲就更难了。”
萨斯曾在美国参议院任职从2015年到2023年，以及是七名共和党人之一在2021年总统第二次弹劾审判中投票给唐纳德·特朗普总统定罪。
萨斯于2023年从参议院辞职，担任佛罗里达大学校长。男性离开了那个角色2024年年中，他说他和他的家人想关注他妻子的健康在她被诊断患有癫痫之后。
4期胰腺癌是最晚期的一种，这意味着癌症已经扩散到远处的器官，如肝脏或肺部，根据美国国家癌症研究所。
这平均诊断年龄根据美国国家癌症研究所的数据，美国的胰腺癌患者年龄约为70-71岁，大多数病例发生在65岁及以上，极少数在45岁之前确诊。
胰腺癌通常在晚期被诊断，因为早期胰腺肿瘤通常不会引起特定症状，并且没有有效的常规筛查测试。诊断通常发生在疾病发展之后。
在美国，今年预计将有大约67，440人被诊断为胰腺癌，并且预计将有大约51，980人死于胰腺癌，这反映了胰腺癌的发病率和致死率，根据美国癌症协会.
萨斯称赞他的家人在过去的一年里能够团结在一起，并对能够花更多的时间和他们在一起表示感谢。他补充说，圣诞节似乎不是宣布诊断结果的“最糟糕”时机。
“作为一名基督徒，圣诞节前的几周是一个让我们的心面向未来的希望的时候，”他写道。
后来，萨斯补充说，“我会有更多的话要说。我不会不战而降的。过去几年，科学在免疫疗法等方面取得了令人瞠目结舌的进步，这是上帝恩典的一个子部分。死亡和濒死是不一样的——死亡的过程仍然是要经历的事情。”
Former Sen. Ben Sasse announces he has been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer
Former Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse shared on Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer.
"Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die," Sasse, 53, wrotein a post on Xon Tuesday.
"Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do… Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all. Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad."
Sasse served in the U.S. Senatefrom 2015 to 2023, andwas one of seven Republicansto vote to convict President Donald Trump in the president’s second impeachment trial in 2021.
Sasse resigned from the Senate in 2023 to take on the job of president of the University of Florida. Heleft that rolein mid-2024, saying he and his family wanted tofocus on his wife’s healthafter she had been diagnosed with epilepsy.
Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, which is the most advanced form, means the cancer has spread to distant organs such as the liver or lungs, according to theNational Cancer Institute.
Theaverage age of diagnosisfor pancreatic cancer in the United States is about 70–71 years old, with most cases occurring in people 65 and older and very few diagnosed before age 45, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed at a late stage because early pancreatic tumors usually cause no specific symptoms, and there is no effective routine screening test. Diagnosis usually happens after the disease has progressed.
In the United States, about 67,440 people are expected to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year, and around 51,980 are expected to die from it, reflecting both its frequency and lethality,according to the American Cancer Society.
Sasse praised his family for how they’ve been able to bond together over the past year and expressed gratitude for being able to spend more time with them. He added that the Christmas season felt like it was not "the worst" time to announce a diagnosis.
"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.
Later, Sasse added, "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."
