Dr. Nicole Saphier discusses former Sen. Ben Sasse’s, R-Neb., stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis, new immunotherapy advances and what to know as flu season ramps up.

As a writer, there are times when I read something and think, "Wow, that’s good, this cat has chops." Very rarely do I read something that’s new, that I didn’t know was possible. Ben Sasse, he just wrote one of those.

The former Republican senator from Nebraska was informing the nation that he has stage four cancer and is going to die soon.

"Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence," he wrote. "But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do."

It may seem trivial, or even cruel to ponder Sasse’s written words when we know the pain he and his family must feel, but it is not trivial to me, and never has been in the history of man.

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Shakespeare called death the undiscovered country, but Sasse preferred to focus on what we know, writing, "To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not........

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