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Immigration officials held a cancer patient for four hours before they allowed him to become a member of the USA because one of his cancer drugs caused his fingerprints to fade away. His oncologist is now advising all cancer patients who are being treated with the commonly in use accustomed to narcotic, capecitabine, to carry a doctor’s message with them if they want to travel to the USA.

The incident is highlighted in a letter to the cancer journal, Annals of Oncology [1], published online 27 May. According to the oncologist, particular other cancer patients contain reported loss of fingerprints on their blog sites, and some have also commented on almost identical problems entering the USA.

Dr Eng-Huat Tan, a senior consultant in the medical oncology department at the National Cancer Cluster, Singapore, described how his untiring, a 62-year-dated restrain, had mentality and neck cancer that had spread (metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma), but which had responded well to chemotherapy. To steal put a stop to a recurrence of the cancer the patient was put on a living dose of capecitabine, an anti-metabolite drug.

Capecitabine is a unrefined anti-cancer drug acclimated to in the treatment of a slew of cancers such as head and neck cancers, core, stick and colorectal cancers. Sole of its adverse side-effects can be hand-foot syndrome; this is chronic inflammation of the palms or soles of the feet and the veneer can peel, bleed and develop ulcers or blisters. “This can give rise to eradication of tattle on prints with delay,” said Dr Tan.

The sufferer, Mr S, developed a passive cause of convenient-foot syndrome, and because it was not affecting his daily zest he was kept on a adverse measure 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 owing four hours because the immigration officers could not detect his fingerprints. He was allowed to puncture after the custom officers were satisfied that he was not a security menace. He was advised to excursion with a spell out from his oncologist stating his condition and the treatment he was receiving to account for his lack of fingerprints to smooth his entry in future.”

Foreign visitors secure been asked to provide fingerprints at USA airports for respective years at times, and the images are matched with millions of visa holders to note whether the untrained visa applicant has a visa subservient to a unusual name. “These fingerprints are also matched to a list of suspected criminals,” wrote Dr Tan.

Mr S was not aware that he had desperate his fingerprints before he travelled.

Dr Tan concludes: “In summary, patients taking long-term capecitabine may be subjected to problems with regards to fingerprint identification when they enter United States’ ports or other countries that require fingerprint certification and should be warned about this. It is wavering when the onset of fingerprint loss will take right in susceptible patients who are charming capecitabine. However, it is possible that there may be a growing number of such patients as Mr S who may benefit from keep capecitabine for disseminated malignancy. These patients should whip up adequately on the eve of travelling to avert the inconvenience that Mr S was put result of.”

Dr Tan said that he would recommend patients on capecitabine to carry a doctor’s letter with them. “My patient afterwards travelled again with a letter from us and he had fewer problems getting through.”

[1] Tours warning with capecitabine. Annals of Oncology. doi:10.1093/annonc/mdp278
[2] Expected to perseverant confidentiality it is not possible to connect Mr S.

Emma Mason Emma Mason

European Society for Medical Oncology