A FOUR-year-old boy has had dozens of breast implants  in a life-saving treatment, over fears the moles covering nearly all of his body will turn into fatal cancer.

Dylan Little, from Atlanta in Georgia, USA, was born with giant Congenital Melanocytic Nevus – a rare condition affecting only one in 20,000 people.

Moles once covered 80 per cent of the baby’s body, with the largest stretching from above his ear to his bottom and others ranging from the size of a dot to half a dollar.

His parents Kara, 38, and Nikki, 33, decided to have Dylan’s moles removed.

In surgery, expanders are placed under the skin’s surface and filled with saline to stretch it out – a very similar process to boob jobs.

After three months, the expanders will be taken out – and the extra skin used to cover areas where the nevus had been removed.

Dylan has already been in surgery 26 times, and more than 50 per cent of the affected areas have been removed.

Mum Kara, an air traffic controller, said: “When Dylan was born, more than 80 per cent of his body was covered in moles.

“His back was entirely black and bleeding – his face, arms and legs were all covered in moles.

“The largest one was from above his ears all the way down to his bottom, so it went all the way down around his shoulders, belly and entire backside.

“That was as well as hundreds of satellites, where the moles ranged from half the size of a dollar to the dot of a pen.

“Studies have shown that larger affected areas are more like to turn cancerous.

“We’re holding onto hope that the moles never turn on and become cancerous, but he could develop cancer at any point.

“He has surgery every three to six months, dependent on which area of the body – if it’s on the lower back we wait six months, while having another surgery to work on other parts.

“They put the skin expanders inside the body under the clearer sections and over three months fill them up with saline until they grow and triple in size, like a water balloon inside him.

“They then use the excess skin to cover the area of nevus that they have removed.

“We’ve taken off around 50 per cent. We’ve gone for the delicate areas around the neck, shoulders and upper back.

“We hopefully can remove all of the areas on his back. He may eventually run out of good skin, but as long as we remove the majority of the largest area our chances of it turning cancerous are less.

“We are trying to do what’s best for him. We want to give him the fullest, longest life we possibly can.

“Dylan amazes me constantly. He always has a smile on his face and feels like he owns the hospital. All the nurses know and love him.”

Cruel strangers, who have no experience of Dylan’s condition, have even called him a ‘monster’ – so now he hands out informational cards with a link to a Facebook page for Congenital Melanocytic Nevus.

Kara said: “Once in a supermarket a store manager asked us to leave because one of their customers was upset about having seen our child, which was very upsetting.

“But we’re not going to hide, I’m not afraid to take him out at all and I don’t want him to be worried or think there is something he should be ashamed of.”

Dylan also has MRI scans twice a year, to make sure his moles haven’t developed into cancerous growths in the brain or spine, where he has melanocyte deposits.

Kara said: “We don’t know what his future holds at this point, he could have days, weeks, years or decades – which is why we are doing everything we can to keep him with us.”

Statistics about the rate of Giant Congenital Melanocytic Nevus becoming cancerous vary, with estimates between one and 10 per cent.

Mark Beckwith, CEO of Nevus Outreach, said: “Skin expanders have a lot in common with breast implants.

“The point is to place a device under the skin that can be made larger, and as a result stretches the skin so there is more of it.

“Then, once there is enough, they perform a second procedure to remove the expander, remove some or all of the nevus, and use the adjacent, recently expanded skin, to replace where the nevus used to be before it was removed.”

However, when the condition is found in the brain and spine, as with Dylan’s case, the risk can be significantly higher.

Mark added: “There is a related condition called ‘neurocutaneous melanocytosis’ (NCM) which is the presence of pigment cells in the central nervous system

“NCM can be a serious problem and results in death occasionally, because, as you can imagine, your brain is not really a good place to have a mole.

“The majority of people who have this are lucky enough that the moles in their brain don’t affect their brain’s function in ways that are particularly critical.

“However, a small number of people, usually children, are killed by this every year.”

Currently Dylan’s parents are fundraising to continue his treatment.