Woman turned away at bank after chemotherapy erased her fingerprints

The 65-year-old had breast cancer

A woman was denied a bank transaction because she had no fingerprints after losing them as a rare side effect of chemotherapy that she received for breast cancer.

The unnamed 65-year old suffered from the rare hand-foot syndrome, which can cause painful swelling, calluses and blisters on the hands and feet, a side effect of the chemotherapy drug capecitabine that she was given to fight her stage four breast cancer.

A bank in Mexico City turned her away as it required fingerprints to authorise a transaction, which she could not provide due to the swelling on her fingers.

To prevent similar problems in future, the woman was given a letter by doctors that explained her lack of fingerprints.

The case was detailed in the New England Journal of Medicine, in an article by Yanin Chavarri-Guerra M.D and Enrique Soto-Perez-de-Celis M.D, both of the National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition in Mexico City.

The unusual side effect has caused problems for patients before - in 2012, doctors in Saudi Arabia detailed the difficulties of a 53-year old man who was unable to process important government documents due to hand-foot syndrome erasing his fingerprints.

The doctors said this difficulty imposed a "significant inconvenience and frustration on a person severely challenged by his deteriorating health."

In the USA, a 62-year old man from Singapore was detained for four hours by US immigration officials after he was unable to provide fingerprints due to the capecitabine he was prescribed for his head and neck cancer.

Speaking to ABC News, Chavarri-Guerra warned that this issue may become more common in future, as new technology in smartphones and at border crossings will make fingerprints more important.

She added: "We see, all the time, physical adverse events, but we are not aware of the social adverse events."