--- title: Claire McCaskill Says She Has Breast Cancer description: She will take a three week absence from the Senate while she receives treatment canonical: https://time.com/4233085/senator-mccaskill-breast-cancer-announcement/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-22T21:28:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:16:41.176Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sen. Claire McCaskill Says She Has Breast Cancer og:description: She will take a three week absence from the Senate while she receives treatment. og:url: https://time.com/4233085/senator-mccaskill-breast-cancer-announcement/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72c180b79f02946a/69887e94cd1bbae5406ff86b/claire-mccaskill2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4200 og:image:height: 2363 og:image:alt: Claire McCaskill og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sen. Claire McCaskill Says She Has Breast Cancer twitter:description: She will take a three week absence from the Senate while she receives treatment. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72c180b79f02946a/69887e94cd1bbae5406ff86b/claire-mccaskill2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sen. Claire McCaskill Says She Has Breast Cancer > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Feb 22, 2016 9:28 PM UTC  Sen. Claire McCaskill at a senate hearing in Washington, April 2, 2014. Sen. Claire McCaskill at a senate hearing in Washington, April 2, 2014. Pablo Martinez Monsivais—AP by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Feb 22, 2016 9:28 PM UTC Democratic Sen. [Claire McCaskill](http://time.com/55768/time-100-2014-poll-us-politics/item/claire-mccaskill/) announced Monday that she has breast cancer. The 62-year-old Senator from Missouri said that she would take a three week absence from her office to receive treatment in St. Louis. “I very recently learned that I have breast cancer. It was detected through a regular mammogram. It’s a little scary, but my prognosis is good and I expect a full recovery,” McCaskill said in a [heartfelt post on the blogging platform Tumblr](http://clairecmc.tumblr.com/post/139807035977/i-very-recently-learned-that-i-have-breast-cancer). McCaskill, a Democrat, said she would remain diligent during her missed time that she would be posting how she would have voted to her Senate website, as well as submitting questions in writing for any missed hearings. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4233085/senator-mccaskill-breast-cancer-announcement/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4233085/senator-mccaskill-breast-cancer-announcement/"},"headline":"Sen. 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