FIRST ON FOX: Battling Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, former Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse is looking ahead with optimism for his own health but expressed less hope for America's future.

He cautioned that America's greatest challenges are still to come in a pre-recorded interview for the Western Conservative Summit in Lakewood, Colorado, exclusively shared with Fox News Digital.

"Pancreatic cancer is nasty and I would never wish it on my worst enemy, but I also would never want to go back to a stage of my life where I didn't know the power of pancreatic cancer prayer," said Sasse, quoting Pastor Tim Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York.

Sasse, 54, shared in December 2025 that he has metastatic pancreatic cancer, which has spread to multiple organs — including his liver and lungs. He was initially given three to four months to live but 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.

"My tumors have shrunk by over 80% in the six and a half months I've been on this drug," said Sasse in his update. "The drug has been amazing and I'm grateful for that common grace extension of time."

"We're a couple days away from being seven months since my diagnosis at three to four months to live."

Even as he reflected on his own mortality, Sasse said he's increasingly concerned about the country's future, cautioning that the U.S. must outcompete China, overhaul its failing schools and adapt to an AI-driven economy.

"I want the U.S. Via decentralized corporate structures to rule the world, not CCP, tyrannical, Maoist to rule of the world and I think most middle powers, most countries in the world know that somewhere between 25 years from now, we're going to say the world is Western/U.S. led," said Sasse.

He describes a world that is led by the U.S. passing along values with free trade, a rule of law, transparency and acknowledgment of human rights.

The alternative would be "CCP led," said Sasse. "Which is them controlling all trade through Beijing."

From the campus of Colorado Christian University, where conservative leaders gathered for the Western Conservative Summit, Sasse also weighed in on the challenges facing higher education.

"Our educational systems are just a complete disaster," said Sasse.

The latest Nation's Report Card found that roughly one in three eighth graders cannot read at even a basic level, nearly 40% fall below basic in math, and fewer than one-third are proficient in reading, according to the National Assessment Governing Board report for 2025.

Sasse argued that academic benchmarks are too low and that increasing government spending on education has failed to improve student outcomes.

"The potential and the capacity of most souls and most brains is a lot more than that and we've just got a disastrous system," said Sasse.

Sasse said that the rise of AI is going to "externalize a lot of IQ" changing what schools will teach.

He added that America is entering an AI revolution that will disrupt work, education, and global power.

"A hundred years from now, when we look back on our moment, we're not gonna talk about our politics very much. I think we're gonna talk about the fact that we are living through a technological revolution," said Sasse.