HONG KONG: 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. Foreign visitors arriving at US airports are asked to provide fingerprints that are then matched against a database of visa holders and a list of suspected criminals.
The patient was eventually allowed to enter after officials were satisfied he was not a security threat the patient’s doctor, Tan Eng Huat, said. The incident was reported by Tan, who advised cancer patients taking this drug to carry a doctor’s letter when traveling to the US.
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.
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.
