KRASNODAR, October 8. /TASS/. Oncologists in Krasnodar, southern Russia, have successfully performed the first of what they say will be a series of operations to remove a large Batman-shaped birthmark from the face of a six-month-old girl from the United States. The course of treatment will require an estimated six to eight surgeries and last 18 months, the commercial director of the specialized clinic of laser and photodynamic therapy, Andrei Aleksutkin, told TASS on Tuesday.

The infant patient, Luna Fenner, was diagnosed with melanocytic nevus, a skin condition characterized by an "abnormally dark" patch. People with the illness are at high risk for developing melanoma. All medical specialists in the US Luna was taken to said there was very little they could do, if at all, and the chance of success looked very slim, because their methodology would require up to 80 surgeries under general anesthesia, something a little baby would hardly endure. Luna’s case began to be widely discussed in the media and the social networks. At a certain point cancer specialists in Krasnodar invited Luna and her mother Carol to their clinic for a course of photodynamic therapy.

"The first operation was successful. Luna eats well and takes baby drinks as any other child. No medications have to be used. No antipyretics or painkillers. So far doctors have treated part of the patch on Luna’s forehead," Aleksutkin said, adding that at the moment there was no threat the patch might turn to cancer.