--- 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sen. Claire McCaskill Says She Has Breast Cancer 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. Claire McCaskill Says She Has Breast Cancer","datePublished":"2016-02-22T21:28:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:16:41.176Z","description":"She will take a three week absence from the Senate","url":"https://time.com/4233085/senator-mccaskill-breast-cancer-announcement/","keywords":["Senate","Missouri"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72c180b79f02946a/69887e94cd1bbae5406ff86b/claire-mccaskill2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72c180b79f02946a/69887e94cd1bbae5406ff86b/claire-mccaskill2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Claire McCaskill","caption":"Claire McCaskill","creditText":"Pablo Martinez Monsivais—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/senate/","name":"Senate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4233085/senator-mccaskill-breast-cancer-announcement/","name":"Sen. Claire McCaskill Says She Has Breast Cancer"}}]}] ```