Welcome to Wellness on Mass. I'm Dr. Nicole Sapphire. And this is your weekly rundown. I hope everyone

had a wonderful Hanukkah and a very merry Christmas. We got some very sad news from former Nebraska

Senator Ben Sass this week. He announced that he has been diagnosed with stage four advanced

pancreatic cancer,

a disease that he described candidly as a death sentence in a message to the public.

SAS 53 and a husband and father of three made it clear just how devastating this diagnosis is,

and how quickly this disease can progress.

Most people don't realize it, but pancreatic cancer is one of the

deadliest forms of cancer. In the United States, it affects roughly 67,000 people each year,

with nearly 51,000 deaths every year, making it the fourth leading cause of cancer death.

So what makes pancreatic cancer so deadly?

Well, it often causes no symptoms until it's already advanced. And by the time it's diagnosed,

about 50 to 60 percent of patients are already at stage four, where treatment options are limited

and survival rates are low. The overall five-year survival for metastatic pancreatic cancer is in the single digits.

We do have treatment options.

There are getting better with some of these survival odds, but it is still far below what we would like it to be.

So this isn't just a political figure struggle. It's a reflection

of a broader public health challenge. We still urgently need better tools at diagnosing

and finding this particular cancer early, more research funding and broader access to cutting-edge

treatments. These are not luxuries. These are necessities. And now shifting from

personal health to our entire health system, the millions of Americans who rely on the Affordable

Care Act health insurance are facing immediate financial stress because expanded ACA subsidies

...