The Case of the Disappearing Fingerprints
One useful anti-cancer drug can effectively erase the whorls and other characteristic marks that give people their distinctive fingerprints. Losing
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could become troublesome. A case released online in a letter by Annals of Oncology indicates bow big a
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of losing fingerprints is.
Eng-Huat Tan, a Singapore-based medical doctor describes a 62-year old man who has used capecitabine to
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his nasopharyngeal cancer. After three years on the
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, the patient decided to visit U.S. relatives last December. But be was stopped by U. S. customs officials
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4 hours after entering the country when those officials couldn"t get fingerprints from the man. There were no distinctive swirly
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appearing from his index finger.
U.S. customs has been fingerprinting incoming foreign visitors for years, Tan says. Their index fingers are
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and screened against digital files of the fingerprints of bad guys—terrorists and potential criminals that our federal guardians have been tasked with keeping out of the country. Unfortunately, for the Singaporean travelers, one potential
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effect of his drug treatment is a smoothing of the tissue on the finger pads.
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, no fingerprints.
"It is uncertain when fingerprint loss will
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to take place in patients who are taking capecitabine," Tan points out. So he cautions any physicians who
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the drug to provide their patients with a doctor"s note pointing out that their medicine may cause fingerprints to disappear.
Eventually, the Singapore traveler made it into the United States. I guess the name on his passport didn"t raise any red flags. But he"s also now got the explanatory doctor"s note—and won"t leave home
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it.
By the way, maybe the Food and Drug Administration,
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approved use of the drug 11 years ago, should consider
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its list of side effects associated with this medicine. The current list does note that patients may experience vomiting, stomach pain and some other side effects. But no where
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it mention the potential for loss of fingerprints.