“I very recently learned that I have breast cancer,” Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., announced in a statement on Monday.
In a note on her Tumblr page, McCaskill, 62, wrote that her prognosis is good and that she expects a full recovery. The cancer was detected during a routine mammogram, and McCaskill said she will be in St. Louis for three weeks to receive treatment.
During her absence, McCaskill added, her staffers will continue to help Missourians. For any matters that come before the Senate during her absence, she will post how she would have voted, and she will submit questions in writing for missed Senate hearings.
U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., tweeted out his support of the state's senior senator. He wished McCaskill and her family "the very best as she deals with this difficult diagnosis."
About 224,000 women and 2,000 men are diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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