In a very rare instance, doctors reported a man, who had never been to Ireland, developed a strong Irish accent due to prostate cancer complications.
The case study, published in the BMJ Case Report, detailed the unique manifestation of the man’s prostate cancer.
The man, in his 50s, was diagnosed with foreign accent syndrome (FAS). The changes in his speech pattern happened 20 months after his prostate cancer diagnosis. The patient reported he had begun to speak with an “Irish brogue” accent.
“The patient had never been to Ireland and had never previously spoken in an Irish accent, though he had Irish family/friends and had lived in England briefly in his 20s,” the team wrote of the man, who lived in California. “His accent was uncontrollable, present in all settings, and gradually became persistent.”
The patient had not suffered any head trauma or any other symptoms besides unusual weight loss. To get to the root of the problem, the doctors conducted an MRI of his brain, which came back as normal. However, a CT scan of his pelvis and abdomen showed that his prostate cancer was progressing. After being diagnosed with FAS, the Californian man was referred to neurology for further investigation.
With only 100 people in the world diagnosed with the condition, FAS is extremely rare, according to IFLScience. In most cases, the symptoms are due to a traumatic injury to the head or a stroke, which damages areas of the brain responsible for speech.
In the case of a stroke, the condition is not permanent and will perish as the person recovers.
The change in sounds associated with FAS is often due to altered movements of the patient’s jaw and tongue.
In this case, even three months after receiving treatment for cancer, the patient did not lose his Irish accent. Moreover, he had developed abdominal and leg pain. On scanning, the team found cancer had spread to his liver and bones. Later, cancer progressed further, metastasizing to his brain.
The team attributed the foreign accent syndrome to paraneoplastic syndrome. This syndrome can be associated with prostate cancer, and, in this case, the progression of his FAS was in tandem with the progression of cancer.
Paraneoplastic syndromes are systemic symptoms caused by abnormal masses “through hormonal, immune-mediated or unknown mechanisms,” the team wrote.
This is the first case reported in the medical literature where FAS was due to prostate cancer, according to the team. The team is hopeful the case study warrants the need for more studies on the link between FAS and paraneoplastic syndromes in cancer patients.
Unfortunately, due to severe cancer progression, the man died under palliative care, and “his Irish brogue-like accent was maintained until his death.”