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The Case of the Disappearing Fingerprints One useful anti-cancer drug can effectively erase the whorls and other characteristic matrks that give people their distinctive fingerprints. Losing 1 could become troublesome. A case released online in a letter by Annals of Oncology indicates how big a 2 of losing fingerprints is. Eng-Huat Tan, a Singapore-based medical doctor describes a 62-year old man who has used capecitabine to 3 his nasopharyngeal cancer. After three years on the 4 , the patient decided to visit U. S. relatives last December. But he was stopped by U.S. customs officials 5 4 hours after entering the country when those officials couldnt get fingerprints from the man. There were no distinctive swirly 6 appearing from his index finger. U.S. customs3 has been fingerprinting incoming foreign visitors for years, Tan says. Their index fingers are 7 and screened against digital files of the fingerprints of bad guysterrorists and potential criminalsat our federal guardians have been tasked with keeping out of the country. Unfortunately, for the Singapore traveler, one potential 8 effect of his drug treatment is a smoothing of the tissue on the finger pads. 9 , no fingerprints. It is uncertain when fingerprint loss will 10 to take place in patients who are taking capecitabine, Tan points out. So he cautions any physicians who 11 the drug to provide their patients with a doctors note pointing out that their medicine may cause fingerprints to disappear. | 
