Utah sisters diagnosed weeks apart fight breast cancer together

Rick Bowmer / AP

In this Thursday, May 26, 2016, photo, Annette Page and her sister Sharee Page hold a cell phone with a photograph of the two of them before being diagnosed with cancer during an interview in Farmington, Utah.

By Hallie Golden, Associated Press

Tuesday, May 31, 2016 | 8:37 a.m.

SALT LAKE CITY — Two Utah sisters have been recently diagnosed with breast cancer within about two weeks of each other, a coincidence that doctors say is extremely rare.

The timing has meant that 34-year-old Sharee Page and 36-year-old Annette Page can face the disease as a team, like they have nearly every other aspect of their lives.

The two women are on the same chemotherapy schedule, and they have experienced nearly identical symptoms after each session.

Huntsman Cancer Institute doctor Adam Cohen says it is extremely rare for two siblings to be diagnosed with the disease within weeks of each other. The sisters have the BRCA2 gene, a mutation that puts a woman at a much greater risk for breast and ovarian cancers.

Cohen says the gene increases the risk of breast cancer tenfold.