An American man hit headlines in recent weeks after developing an ‘uncontrollable’ Irish accent following a surgery to treat his prostate cancer.
A new case study looking into the bizarre after-effects of his treatment confirmed that he did in fact develop an Irish twang, despite having never even visited the Emerald Isle.
The 50-year-old man who hails from North Carolina in the United States had been diagnosed with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.
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According to a recent study in the British Medical Journal, he began to show symptoms consistent with what is known as foreign accent syndrome (FAS).
Explaining his circumstances, researchers from Duke University noted: "He had no neurological examination abnormalities, psychiatric history or MRI of the brain abnormalities at symptom onset."
FAS is a speech disorder that causes a change in a patient’s speech patterns, and in previous cases was linked to brain damage - sometimes following a stroke.
The condition is not a new phenomenon and was actually first diagnosed in 1907. Since then, there have been over 110 cases reported across the world.
Earlier research also suggested that the change in accent was linked to certain types of breast cancer and brain cancer, as well as with psychiatric conditions like bipolar disorder.
Now, scientists say they believe the syndrome could be the result of changes to the structure of the brain caused by cancer tumours or encephalitis (swelling in the brain).
The new research, however, marks the first reported case of a person developing FAS linked to a prostate cancer diagnosis.
Researchers noted that the 50-year-old had lived in England in his 20s and was friendly with people from Ireland, but he had never spoken with an Irish accent.
"His accent was uncontrollable, present in all settings and gradually became persistent" until he passed away, according to scientists.
Scientists believe the man’s accent change was likely due to a paraneoplastic neurological disorder (PND), which is a condition where a cancer patient’s immune system begins to attack their nervous system.
"His presentation was most consistent with an underlying PND," they said.
"Despite chemotherapy, his neuroendocrine prostate cancer progressed resulting in multifocal brain metastases and a likely paraneoplastic ascending paralysis leading to his death."
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