MINNEAPOLIS (NewsNation Now) — Minneapolis Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar announced she was diagnosed with stage 1A breast cancer and has been undergoing cancer treatment since May.
In a blog post, she described receiving radiation treatment and a lumpectomy to remove the cancer. Klobuchar said her doctors believe the treatment went well.
“Of course this has been scary at times, since cancer is the word all of us fear, but at this point my doctors believe that my chances of developing cancer again are no greater than the average person,” she wrote.
During 2020, her husband developed a severe case of COVID-19 and her father also died after a bout of illness.
She also ran for president during the 2020 race, but dropped out after President Joe Biden won the South Carolina primary.
In Klobuchar’s blog post, she called attention to the growing concern among doctors that people are delaying the kind of routine health procedures during the pandemic that caught her breast cancer at such an early stage.
“It’s easy to put off health screenings, just like I did. But I hope my experience is a reminder for everyone of the value of routine health checkups, exams, and follow-through. I am so fortunate to have caught the cancer at an early enough stage and to not need chemotherapy or other extensive treatments, which unfortunately is not the case for so many others,” Klobuchar wrote.