An unusual news report circled the Internet this week. Apparently, a cancer patient from Singapore was detained for four hours after he tried to enter the United States and immigration officials were unable to obtain his fingerprints. Why were officials unable to obtain fingerprints? The man’s cancer treatment had caused his fingerprints to disappear. To the unsuspecting immigration official the “medication caused me to lose my fingerprints” excuse was probably as believable as “the dog eat my homework” excuse. I admit, the first time I read about this the only individuals who I could think of who had lost their fingerprints were serial killers from scary movies.
The man’s oncologist identified the responsible drug as capecitabine and suggested that other cancer patients taking capecitabine carry a doctor’s note when travelling internationally. As for why capecitabine causes lost fingerprints – I don’t know, I am not a doctor. However, the Scientific American offers a bit more of an explanation.
All joking aside. I suspect that the immigration officials had never encountered this situation before and a delay of four hours is not that unreasonable of a delay. Now that the situation is widely known, let’s hope that other cancer patients will not be delayed for so long. And individuals taking capecitabine – don’t forget your doctor’s note.