A woman's eyelashes grew to 3cm (1.2inches) long in just three weeks as a bizarre side effect of her cancer treatment.
The 45-year-old was having therapy for late-stage bowel cancer when she noticed that her eyelashes were growing extremely fast.
The woman, who has not been named, said people began asking where she had been to get such realistic eyelash extensions.
But she admitted the strange growth has become a 'beauty problem' because the lashes are itchy and can become infected.
Portuguese doctors reported the drug cetuximab was to blame because it increased the growth of her hair cells.
The 45-year-old woman, from Lisbon in Portugal, ended up with eyelashes 3cm long because of a bizarre side effect of her cancer treatment
Although she was complimented, the woman needed the eyelashes (pictured) trimmed because they were itchy and causing infection
The authors, led by Dr Leonor Vasconcelos Matos, revealed the case study in the journal BMJ Case Reports.
In November 2017, the woman was diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer, for which she started treatment in the December.
Despite a slight rash after five cycles of chemotherapy, the woman reported a good tolerance to the treatment.
A rash occurs in 80 per cent of people having cetuximab, and more than one in six people (15 per cent) have a severe skin rash, according to Cancer Research UK.
The authors wrote: 'After 14 cycles, she went to the oncology clinics with an acute infection of the eyelids.'
At the same time, the woman complained that her eyelashes had spurted in growth in the past three weeks.
She described the growth as 'extremely troublesome and unpleasant'.
Elongation of the eyelashes has predominantly been observed in patients with either colorectal or lung cancer.
It is most frequently associated with cetuximab and erlotinib; however, it has also been described in individuals treated with gefitinib or panitumumab.
These treatments block proteins called epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR).
Cetuximab is a cancer treatment drug
