Months after revealing his stage 4 cancer diagnosis, former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse is speaking out about an experimental therapy that could extend his life.Sasse, a Republican who represented Nebraska between 2015 and 2023, shared in December 2025 that he has metastatic pancreatic cancer, which has spread to multiple organs — including his liver and lungs.After initially being given three to four months to live, Sasse, 54, entered a clinical trial for a drug called daraxonrasib, an oral therapy (pill) that is designed to block the defective gene that triggers uncontrolled cellular growth.CANCER SURVIVAL APPEARS TO DOUBLE WITH COMMON VACCINE, RESEARCHERS SAYThe California-based drugmaker, Revolution Medicines, recently shared data from a phase 3 clinical trial of people with metastatic pancreatic cancer who did not respond to standard chemotherapy. Patients on the treatment lived a median of 13 months, compared to around six months for those who continued with chemo."I have much, much less pain than I had four months ago when I was diagnosed, and I have a massive 76% reduction in tumor volume over the last four months," Sasse told "60 Minutes" in a recent interview.Daraxonrasib works by going after a key growth "switch" in many cancers called RAS, according to Sarbajit Mukherjee, M.D., chief of gastrointestinal medical oncology at Miami Cancer Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida. MAN WITH STAGE 4 CANCER RAISES $150K FOR EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENT"In pancreatic cancer, that switch is stuck in the ‘on’ position in the vast majority of tumors, constantly telling the cancer cells to grow and spread," the doctor, who was not involved in the trial and did not treat Sasse, told Fox News Digital."Daraxonrasib is designed to bind to RAS in its active state and turn down that signal, which can slow or shrink the cancer."Pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose early because there are generally no symptoms — or only subtle gastrointestinal symptoms — until it is already widespread, according to Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst."This is the first-of-its-kind targeted therapy for pancreatic cancer," Siegel, who also was not involved in the research or the senator’s treatment, told Fox News Digital. "The drug is in the final stages of clinical trials, where it has been shown to double the survival of those previously treated for metastatic pancreatic cancer."Mukherjee noted that the survival boost seen in the trial is a "big difference" for a disease that typically has much shorter… [TheTopNews] Read More.
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