Cancer patient held at airport for missing fingerprint

[robert_mcmillan () idg com]

Make sure you arrive with fingerprints when visiting the US

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090527/od_nm/us_fingerprints_1

Cancer patient held at airport for missing fingerprint
Reuters

By Tan Ee Lyn Tan Ee Lyn – Wed May 27, 12:30 pm ET

HONG KONG (Reuters) – A Singapore cancer patient was held for four hours by
immigration officials in the United States when they could not detect his
fingerprints -- which had apparently disappeared because of a drug he was
taking.

The incident, highlighted in the Annals of Oncology, was reported by the
patient's doctor, Tan Eng Huat, who advised cancer patients taking this
drug to carry a doctor's letter when traveling to the United States.

The drug, capecitabine, is commonly used to treat cancers in the head and
neck, breast, stomach and colorectum.

One side-effect is chronic inflammation of the palms or soles of the feet
and the skin can peel, bleed and develop ulcers or blisters -- or what is
known as hand-foot syndrome.

"This can give rise to eradication of fingerprints with time," explained
Tan, senior consultant in the medical oncology department at Singapore's
National Cancer Center.

The patient, a 62-year-old man, had head and neck cancer that had spread
but responded well to chemotherapy. To prevent the cancer from recurring,
he was put on capecitabine.

"In December 2008, after more than three years of capecitabine, he went to
the United States to visit his relatives," Tan wrote.

"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."

Tan said the loss of fingerprints is not described in the packaging of the
drug, although chronic inflammation of the palms and soles of feet is
included.

"The topmost layer ... is the layer that accounts for the fingerprint, that
(losing that top layer) is all it takes (to lose a fingerprint)," Tan told
Reuters.

"Theoretically, if you stop the drug, it will grow back but details are
scanty. No one knows the frequency of this occurrence among patients taking
this drug and nobody knows how long a person must be on this drug before
the loss of fingerprints."

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