Baby's cancer removed while in mother's womb

London, June 23 (IANS) An unborn baby girl in the US was detected with an extremely rare cancerous tumour in the mouth, but doctors successfully removed it in one of the world's first such surgeries in the womb.

Leyna Gonzalez was born healthy five months later, The Sun reported.

She is now nearly two years old, and the only sign of cancer is a tiny scar on her mouth.

Her mother Tammy's pregnancy scan at 17 weeks showed Leyna had an aggressive mouth tumour. It looked like the baby was blowing a bubble, the daily said.

Doctors said it was a rare tumour called an oral teratoma, and that there was little chance Leyna would survive.

Surgeons used a laser to cut the tumour from Leyna's lips after pushing a super-fine needle into Tammy's womb for the hour-long operation at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida.

Details of the case has been published in US medical journal Obstetrics and Gynaecology.