A US man diagnosed with prostate cancer has allegedly developed an “uncontrollable Irish accent”.
Although the patient had no Irish background, the researchers said his accent fit Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS), according to the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
This man in his 50s was receiving androgen deprivation therapy and abiraterone acetate/prednisone.
It’s an approved treatment for men with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, according to the National Library of Medicine.
The man had no “neurologic examination abnormalities” following imaging studies, the report said.
However, the images do reveal the progression of his prostate cancer.
The researchers found that despite chemotherapy, the patient’s cancer progressed, resulting in multifocal brain tumors and “possible paraneoplastic ascending paralysis.”
This means the man was likely to have advanced cancer that killed him.
The man’s condition developed “consistent with an underlying paraneoplastic neurologic disorder (PND),” the researchers said.
According to the BMJ, PNDs are a group of rare disorders that occur in some cancer patients.
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What is Foreign Accent Syndrome?
FAS is a rare speech disorder that causes people to start speaking with a different accent.
In a report, the BMJ described this as an “abnormal” result of structural nerve damage.
It can also represent a functional neurological disorder, often affecting the “function” of the body, according to the NHS.
This report analyzed 49 patients who self-reported having FAS.
They come from the UK, North America and Australia.
After studying the disease and its participants, the researchers found that these were some common triggers:
- migraine/severe headache
- the stroke
- surgery or injury to the mouth or face
- epileptic seizure
In 2016, a woman in Texas who had jaw surgery developed a British accent after the procedure. Diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder.