»Tumor the size of head removed from face«

Marlie Casseus suffers from a rare form of polyostotic fibrous dysplasia, a nonhereditary, genetic disease that causes bone to become "like a big a bowl of jelly with some bone inside," said Dr. Jesus Gomez of University of Miami School of Medicine, one of the doctors involved in the operation. Doctors said it was necessary to operate immediately or she would go blind.

Gomez said doctors would start with the left side of Casseus' skull and carve away the ballooning fibrous mass that had stretched and distorted her face, spreading apart her teeth.

If the operation is successful, they will seek to reconstruct the right side of her face and then later reconstruct her swollen jaw.

Doctors have performed such operations before, but rarely on a growth so big, Gomez said. Only about 3 percent of the 150,000 people diagnosed with the disease worldwide suffer such an extreme condition, he said.