A man who had prostate cancer developed an “uncontrollable” Irish accent, the first known case of foreign accent syndrome being linked to this kind of cancer.
The man, in his 50s, had consulted a doctor after he noticed the tone and pattern of his speech had changed, 20 months after he’d been diagnosed with prostate cancer, doctors wrote in BMJ Case Reports.
According to Business Insider, he had started to speak consistently with an Irish brogue, yet had never visited the country, said the doctors in Carolina.
Initially, he had displayed no symptoms, but was diagnosed with the most common type of prostate cancer, adenocarcinoma, after screening, and been treated with two types of hormone therapy and radiotherapy to his prostate and pelvis.
Foreign accent syndrome is a rare phenomenon where a person’s speech and articulation consistently change, sounding like a foreign accent. It can occur after a stroke, but in this case it was caused by paraneoplastic syndrome from the prostate cancer, said the authors of the report. Paraneoplastic syndrome refers to a group of symptoms caused by cancer cells that release hormones and other substances.
The report says no one with prostate cancer has had FAS before, but there are case reports of one person with breast cancer and another with brain cancer.
Cancer becomes more aggressive
Three months after the man noticed the accent, he experienced intermittent discomfort in his lower abdomen, pain when he urinated, and leg pain.
Scans found the prostate cancer had spread to his liver and bones, and he had a new mass in his pelvis. Biopsies revealed that the cancer had developed into a rarer, more aggressive subtype of prostate cancer after his hormone treatment.
The doctors said it was important to recognise FAS and underlying paraneoplastic syndromes because they can be a sign that a cancer has developed into a more aggressive type.
Doctors treated the man with two chemotherapy drugs and radiotherapy to his right leg to help manage the pain. But after two cycles he went to hospital because he couldn’t move his feet, and then his arms: the cancer had spread to his brain.
Despite chemotherapy, his condition rapidly deteriorated and he went into a hospice where he died.
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