Infant Twins Share Heartbreaking Cancer Diagnosis

After nine months in the womb together, a set of 3-
month-old twin girls, Kenedi and Kendal, are now
sharing something else -- the same heartbreaking
cancer diagnosis.
"It's devastating having one child diagnosed with
cancer, but having two, it's just a lot more work," the
girls' mom Abby Breyfogle told ABC News today.
"There can be awful side effects of chemo -- we
worry about that of course, but in the grand scheme
of things we try to take it day by day."
"We're trying to enjoy all the time we can with
them," she said.

Breyfogle, of Pierre, South Dakota, said two months
after giving birth to Kenedi and Kendal, the mom of
three noticed strange spots appearing on the both
the girls' skin.
"We thought were bug bites but they weren’t,"
Breyfogle said. "Towards the of July they [nurses]
said to wait it out another week to see if they had
gone away and hadn’t."
"We went to the dermatologist and had a biopsy
there," she added. "That Thursday they called me
and said that the biopsy was malignant."
On Aug. 17, following a bone marrow biopsy,
Breyfogle received confirmation that her twins both
had acute myeloid leukemia .
"Everybody kept saying 'I don’t think so. It can't be
that,'" she said. "Having two, of course it's sad, but
we just immediately went to the next step because
we need to fight this. The doctor said it's very rare."
On Aug. 19, Kenedi and Kendal were admitted into
the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Two days later, the girls received their first rounds of
chemotherapy.
"This one is very rare and to have both identical
twins have it at the same time, at least at the Mayo
Clinic, in our group we have never seen it," said Dr.
Shakila Khan, division chair of pediatric hematology-
oncology at the clinic. "Beginning of August, they
had a very unusual presentation with the lesions. It's
called leukemia cutis and that means leukemia in the
skin. We do see it occasionally in children."
"We confirmed it and started them on therapy," she
added. "They are doing OK and we are hoping that
they continue to do well."
Despite a long road of treatments ahead of them,
Breyfogle said she is confident that her daughters
will remain strong throughout.
"Kenedi is our little one. She was only 3 pounds, 2
ounces when she was born, but she is as tough as
tough can be," she said. "She's very chilled and
relaxed and Kendal is the opposite. We call her
'grumpy pants' because she has a grumpy look,
which really puts a smile on your face. They are
complete opposites."
"Considering everything that’s going on, of course
there are days where they are fussy, but overall they
are great babies," Breyfogle added. "I can't
complain."