Immigration officials held a cancer patient for four hours before they allowed him to enter the United States because one of his cancer drugs caused his fingerprints to disappear, according to a letter to the cancer journal Annals of Oncology. The patient, a 62-year-old man with head and neck cancer that had spread, was being treated with the commonly used drug capectibine to prevent a recurrence of his cancer following chemotherapy.

According to the oncologist, Eng-Huat Tan, a senior consultant in the medical oncology department at the National Cancer Center in Singapore, several other cancer patients have reported loss of fingerprints on their blogs, and some have also commented on similar problems entering the United States.

 

Capecitabine is a common anti-cancer drug used in the treatment of a number of cancers such as head and neck cancers, breast, stomach, and colorectal cancers. One of its adverse side-effects can be hand-foot syndrome, a chronic inflammation of the palms or soles of the feet and the skin can peel, bleed and develop ulcers or blisters. “This can give rise to eradication of finger prints with time,” says Tan. Tan’s patient developed a mild case of hand-foot syndrome, and because it was not affecting his daily life he was kept on a low dose of the drug.

 

"In December 2008, after more than three years of capecitabine, he went to the United States to visit his relatives," wrote Dr Tan. "He was detained at the airport customs for four hours because the immigration officers could not detect his fingerprints. He was allowed to enter after the custom officers were satisfied that he was not a security threat. He was advised to travel with a letter from his oncologist stating his condition and the treatment he was receiving to account for his lack of fingerprints to facilitate his entry in future."

 

Foreign visitors have been asked to provide fingerprints at airports in the United States for several years now, and the images are matched with millions of visa holders to detect whether the new visa applicant has a visa under a different name. The fingerprints are also matched to a list of suspected criminals. Tan says his patient was not aware that he had lost his fingerprints before he travelled.

 

Tan says that he would recommend patients on capecitabine to carry a doctor's letter with them. "My patient subsequently travelled again with a letter from us and he had fewer problems getting through."