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 __(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 couldn’t get fingerprints from the man. There were no distinctive swirly __(6)__ appearing from his index finger.
U.S. customs 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 guys — terrorists and potential criminals that our federal guardians have been tasked with keeping out of the country. Unfortunately, for the Singaporean traveler, one potential __(8)__ effect of his drug treatment is a smoothing of the tissue on the finger pads. __(9)__, no fingerprints.