How cancer can make you speak with an IRISH accent: American man who had never visited the island

A man with cancer woke up to find he suddenly had an Irish accent, even though he had never been to the country.

The American had been battling an advanced form of prostate cancer for almost two years before seeking advice for his ‘uncontrollable brogue’.

Doctors diagnosed the man in his 50s with the extraordinarily rare foreign accent syndrome (FAS).

It means that he is only one of the few people to have ever experienced the speech disorder, which usually occurs as a complication of a stroke or head injury.

But doctors in North Carolina, who treated him and shared clips of his voice before and after the strange change, believe his cancer was to blame. He later he died.

The American had been battling an advanced form of prostate cancer for almost two years before seeking advice for his ‘uncontrollable brogue’. Pictured, Classiebawn Castle, Mullaghmore, Sligo

The man in his 50s had been battling an advanced form of prostate cancer for almost two years before seeking advice for his ‘uncontrollable brogue’. Pictured above, MRI images released by doctors at Duke University Health System of the man’s brain. A-scans are T2-weighted images, while B-scans are fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images

Presenting your case at the Case reports from the British Medical Journalthe Duke University Health System team said they believe the man had developed a paraneoplastic neurological disorder (PND).

These are rare complications of cancer, caused by disease-fighting cells of the immune system mistakenly attacking the nervous system.

This usually causes problems with muscle coordination or movement, but it can also affect thinking skills and memory.

The man, who was not identified, was being treated at ‘an outside institution’ for prostate cancer that had spread through his body.

Over the course of 20 months, he had received androgen deprivation therapy: a hormonal therapy to suppress or block the production or action of male hormones, as well as radiation therapy.

Concerned by her sudden change, the man revealed that he had never been to Ireland and had never spoken with an Irish accent before.

However, he told doctors that he had Irish family and friends and had briefly lived in England when he was 20 years old.

Doctors said her new accent was “uncontrollable, present in all settings, and gradually became persistent.”

Prior to his speech change, he also had no known head injury and had not suffered from any psychiatric conditions.

Although she had unintentionally lost weight, she reported no other symptoms.

The results of an MRI of the brain also showed no abnormalities, ruling out the usual causes of foreign accent syndrome.

But a CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis revealed that his prostate cancer had spread further, with “a new set of right pelvic lymph nodes over the bladder.”

Due to his progressive prostate cancer, he was referred to the Duke Cancer Institute three months later for further treatment.

At this point, the man was still constantly speaking in the ‘Irish brogue’ accent, the doctors noted.

But his cancer had turned into neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC), a deadly variant of prostate cancer.

According to doctors, there are many known cases of PND presenting as symptoms of NEPC patients.

In the UK, prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer. One in eight men will be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime, charities say.

However, the current outlook for patients with advanced prostate cancer is poor, and few treatment options are available.

Some 12,000 men die each year from the disease in the UK, 33 every day, with almost 35,000 deaths each year in the US.

Doctors wrote that the man was shortly transferred to hospice care at home, due to his “rapid clinical deterioration” as his cancer progressed despite chemotherapy.

He passed away “shortly after,” they said.

“His brogue Irish accent was carried on until his death,” they wrote in the BMJ publication.

Foreign accent syndrome can also occur after trauma to the brain, bleeding in the brain, or a brain tumor.

Only around 150 cases have been documented worldwide since its discovery in 1907.

It differs from foreign language syndrome. The condition occurs when people suddenly forget to speak their first language and rely on a second language instead. This may be a language they haven’t spoken for years.