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Sen. Claire McCaskill: 'I Have Breast Cancer'

Missouri Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill announced on her social media accounts that she has breast cancer on Monday.
Image: Claire McCaskill
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington.Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
By Halimah Abdullah

Missouri Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill announced on her social media accounts that she has breast cancer on Monday, a disease she says was detected through a routine mammogram.

"I very recently learned that I have breast cancer. It was detected through a regular mammogram," she wrote on her Tumblr account. "It’s a little scary, but my prognosis is good and I expect a full recovery."

Related: White House Proposes $1 Billion for Cancer 'Moonshot'

McCaskill, 62, said that she would spend the next three weeks in St. Louis receiving treatment.

She directed readers to her website for a record on how she would have voted on issues that may come before the Senate during her absence and plans on submitting questions for hearings she may miss.

Image: Claire McCaskill
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington.Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
Halimah Abdullah

Halimah Abdullah is a digital editor and writer for NBC News and is responsible for reporting, writing, editing and web producing federal policy news for NBCNews.com. Prior to joining the site in April 2015, Abdullah worked at CNN.com, where she reported, edited and web produced stories on federal politics and policy. In that role, Abdullah was responsible for helping cover Congress, the White House, federal agencies, and national political races.

A veteran politics and policy reporter and editor, Abdullah has worked for Bloomberg Government, McClatchy Newspapers' Washington Bureau, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Newsday, and the Dallas Morning News. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times and TODAY.com, among other publications. Her journalism and creative writing have won awards, been published in several anthologies, and earned her invitations to attend several writing colonies. Abdullah is also a writing professor who has taught at the University of Maryland and the University of the District of Columbia and John Jay College and Brooklyn College in New York.

Abdullah lives in the Washington D.C. metro area.