A woman has her fingerprint checked with a new biometric identification before casting her vote at a polling station in an public school in Brasilia, on October 05, 2014. More than 142 million Brazilians went to the polls Sunday in presidential and legislative elections to cap a dramatic campaign. Leftist incumbent Dilma Rousseff was expected to top the presidential poll but fail to secure the 50 percent necessary to avoid a run-off vote on October 26 against either social democrat Aecio Neves or environmentalist Marina Silva. AFP PHOTO/EVARISTO SA (Photo credit should read EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty Images) (EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty Images)

Hartford, Conn. (CBS CONNECTICUT) — A 65-year-old woman’s chemotherapy treatment for stage IV breast cancer that spread to her lungs caused her fingerprints to be erased, perhaps permanently.

New research published in the April 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine details how doctors in Mexico found that a condition called “hand-foot syndrome” is tied to chemo treatment that causes severe skin peeling and swelling that led to the woman losing her fingerprints altogether, HealthDay reports. The woman noticed when she was denied a transaction because her fingerprints disappeared.

The woman’s chemotherapy – a combination of capecitabine and bevacizumab – was effective in shrinking her lung tumors and her dosage was reduced. But the doctors write that the disappearance of the fingerprints appears to be permanent.

“Skin sloughing and peeling with associated swelling is not so uncommon, but the occurrence to the extent that fingerprints may disappear is extremely unusual,” Dr. Stephanie Bernik, chief of surgical oncology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, told HealthDay.

“Usually the symptoms [of hand-foot syndrome, such as skin peeling] are reversible but apparently that was not the case with this patient,” said Bernik. “Health care workers and patients need to be aware of this possible rare result of chemotherapy, especially in an age where use of fingerprints for identification is increasing.”

The syndrome is marked by “redness, swelling, and pain on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet,” according to Drs. Yanin Chavarri-Guerra and Enrique Soto-Perez-de-Celis of the Institute of Medical Science and Nutrition in Mexico City.

The National Institutes of Health notes that HFS is a common adverse reaction to several chemotherapy drugs. The 2012 study cited, “Chemotherapy and Fingerprint Loss: Beyond Cosmetic,” followed the case of a 53-year-old man affected by cancer in the liver and lungs who lost his ability to process required government papers as a result of the loss of his fingerprints.

“We believe clinicians should pay more attention to this possible outcome that can add additional stress in the lives of patients whose quality of life is already severely compromised,” wrote the researchers.

In the case of the 65-year-old woman, the physicians provided her “with a letter explaining that the chemotherapy was responsible for her lack of fingerprints.”