Prostate cancer caused a man in his 50s to suddenly speak with an Irish accent, a drastic change that would last for the rest of his life.
There are only two other medical cases of cancer-induced foreign accent syndrome (FAS). In particular, this is the first case related to prostate cancer.
Foreign Accent Syndrome is a rare speech disorder in which a person may suddenly and for no apparent reason adopt a “foreign” accent, a change in pronunciation that at least superficially resembles the tones of other dialects or languages.
This syndrome is often associated with stroke and traumatic brain injury. For example, the most famous case is that of a Norwegian woman who was injured in the 1941 Oslo air raid. A few months later she spoke with a German accent.
Just recently, news broke that a woman in Arizona woke up literally speaking like “Mary Poppins.” In her case, the cause was unknown.
Far fewer cases are definitely related to some kind of tumor. In fact, only two other cases have been reported in the literature.
In a case published in 2008, it seems that a woman in her 60s began to speak with a different and unspecified accent after breast cancer metastasized to the brain.
In a similar case, an Italian woman in her fifties with a brain tumor suddenly started speaking with different rhythms and melodies.
While the story that one day she suddenly picked up a foreign accent has been noted, most cases of FAS are generalized voice changes that cannot be easily associated with a specific region. .
The case of an American man recently diagnosed with prostate cancer is a rare example of a voice change that closely resembles a recognizable accent.
Apparently he is not of Irish descent and has never even been to Ireland. But just 20 months after he was diagnosed with hormone-sensitive metastatic prostate cancer, he began speaking with a Southern Irish accent.
Unlike previous cases, no brain tumor was initially identified in this patient, but several tumors appeared as the disease progressed.
From this timing, doctors suspect that this patient’s PBS is the result of a rare paraneoplastic neurological disorder (PND). The disease develops when cancers outside the brain trigger an immune response that affects distant nervous systems.
Despite chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the patient’s cancer continued to progress rapidly, slowly becoming paralyzing and, sadly, ultimately taking her life. The man remained with an Irish accent until the end.
“This rare presentation highlights the importance of additional literature on FAS and PND in relation to prostate cancer to improve our understanding of the association between these rare syndromes and their clinical course,” said the case study authors. is writing
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