American Man’s Prostate Cancer May Have Caused Him To Suddenly Develop An Irish Accent

A prostate treatment for an American man Cancer His disease may have caused him to suddenly develop an Irish accent.

According to a report in BMJ Case Reports medical journal, the unnamed patient was being treated at Duke University Medical Center for prostate cancer. His treatment was interrupted by a sudden onset of Irish brogue. He had never been to Ireland and did not have any family in Ireland. He was diagnosed with foreign accent syndrome by researchers, which may have been caused by an immune system response.

“A man in his 50s with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, receiving androgen deprivation therapy and abiraterone acetate/prednisone, presented with an uncontrollable ‘Irish brogue’ accent despite no Irish background, consistent with foreign accent syndrome (FAS),” BMJ Case Reports noted. “He had no neurological examination abnormalities, psychiatric history or MRI of the brain abnormalities at symptom onset. Imaging revealed progression of his prostate cancer, despite undetectable prostate-specific antigen levels.”

Foreign accent syndrome, a rare condition that causes patients to suddenly have speech patterns not consistent with their native accents, is very rare. It is most commonly caused by strokes. However, it can also occur due to head trauma or migraines. The majority of cases will resolve with intensive speech therapy. In some cases, however, the change may be permanent. Guardian reported.

“His accent was uncontrollable, present in all settings and gradually became persistent,” The BMJ report stated.

The Guardian reported that he was a man who lived in England during his 20s and had relatives and close friends who were Irish. He had never been to Ireland, nor spoken Irish in any previous situations. According to the outlet, he kept the accent throughout his treatment of around 20 months.

“To our knowledge, this is the first case of FAS described in a patient with prostate cancer and the third described in a patient with malignancy,” According to the report.

One of the authors of the paper, Dr. Andrew Armstrong of Duke Medical Center’s Divisions of Medical Oncology and Urology, told Newsweek that because this phenomenon is so new, it is hard to find a cause for the patient’s FAS. “We don’t have a ‘smoking gun’ explanation in this case,” Armstrong stated. “Other possibilities are psychological, although he did not have major issues with anxiety or depression and actually was fairly amused by this FAS development.”

“It is possible that this had a physical cause in his language center,” Armstrong also added. “FAS can take many accent forms in different patients, and I assume prior knowledge of an accent is common. This is my first case personally. It is quite rare to see in oncology.”

The patient was diagnosed as small cell neuroendocrine prostatic cancer (NEPC), a deadly form of cancer that attacks the nervous system and endocrine system. According to the report, foreign accent syndrome is a new condition. “presenting manifestation” NEPC. The presentation FAS was consistent in its underlying Paraneoplastic neurological disorder (PND) An immune system reaction to cancerous tumors. The cancer-fighting agent may also attack the brain or nervous systems.

Unfortunately, the man’s condition only worsened. “Despite chemotherapy, his NEPC progressed resulting in multifocal brain metastases and a likely paraneoplastic ascending paralysis leading to his death,” According to the report.