The ‘hand-foot syndrome’: what if a person has no fingerprints?

Missing fingerprints can have various causes: the hand-foot syndrome + genetic disorders.

No fingerprints: about the ‘hand-foot syndrome’ and genetic disorders’ What if a person has no fingerprints? Likely there are 2 options: (1) the person was born without fingerprints (due to a genetic disorders), or (2) the person has ‘lost’ his/her fingerprints during a chemotherapy (in a cancer treatment) – a missing fingerprint is often featured with the ‘hand-foot syndrome’.

By the way, having no fingerprints used to be no big deal. But the situation is changing rapidly due to the evolving applications of biometric fingerprint readers. In many countries fingerprints are required to: pass the nation’s border, and to get a drivers licence and/or passport! TWO ANECDOTES FROM THE PAST FEW YEARS: “Last month (april, 2009) a Singapore-based medical oncologist reported a letter that was presented online in the journal ‘Annals of Oncology’, titled: Travel warning with capecitabine. The trade name fot the cancer medicine capecitabine is ‘Xeloda’ – a medicine that is often prescribed in patients with breast cancer and colorectal cancer. But the oncologist’s patient had been using the drug to treat his nasopharyngeal cancer. Two years ago, Spanish cancer doctors reported a likewise story about the 39-year-old flight attendant Cheryl Maynard detained for several hours at a U.S. airport until her doctor faxed an explanation that the capecitabine she’d been taking for breast cancer had erased her fingerprints.” Source: Why a cancer patient may have no fingerprints: THE HAND-FOOT SYNDROME! MORE FASCINATING ‘FINGER’ STORIES: • Fingerprints in the news! • Can palm reading pick up ovarian cancer? • Raynaud’s syndrome – another painful hand disorder • Paraesthesia: feels like having pins and needles in the fingers