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

A man with cancer has woken up to find he suddenly has an Irish accent – despite never being in the country.

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

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

This means he is just one of the few people to have ever suffered from the speech impediment, 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 bizarre change – believe his cancer was to blame. He died later.

Presenting his case in the British Medical Journal case reports, the Duke University Health System team said they believed the man had developed a paraneoplastic neurological disorder (PND).

These are rare complications of cancer, caused by immune system cells that fight disease and mistakenly attack the nervous system.

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

The man, who has not been identified, was being treated at “an outside facility” for prostate cancer that had spread through his body.

In 20 months, he had received androgen deprivation therapy – hormone therapy to suppress or block the production or action of male hormones, as well as radiation therapy.

Worried about his sudden change, the man revealed he had never been to Ireland and had never spoken in an Irish accent before.

He did, however, tell doctors that he had Irish family and friends and had briefly lived in England during his twenties.

Doctors said his new accent was “uncontrollable, present in all settings and becoming progressively persistent”.

Prior to his language change, he also had no known head trauma and had not suffered from any psychiatric illnesses.

Although he had unintentionally lost weight, he did not report any other symptoms.

Results of a brain MRI also showed no abnormalities, ruling out the usual causes of foreign accent syndrome.

But a CT scan of his abdomen and pelvis revealed that his prostate cancer had spread further, with “a new cluster of right pelvic lymph nodes above 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 speaking with the “Irish brogue” accent, doctors noted.

But his cancer had developed 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 patients with NEPC.

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.

The current outlook for patients with advanced prostate cancer, however, is poor, with few treatment options available.

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

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

He died “soon after,” they noted.

“His brogue-like Irish accent was maintained until his death,” they wrote in the BMJ publication.

Foreign accent syndrome can also occur after brain trauma, brain hemorrhage, or brain tumor.

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

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