The patient had never travelled to Ireland.

A cancer patient in the US developed what has been described as an “uncontrollable Irish brogue” despite never going to Ireland. The patient, an American man in his 50s, was suffering from small cell neuroendocrine prostate cancer and undergoing chemotherapy at the time.

While the man spent a few years in England, he never made the journey to Ireland, and had no Irish background beyond a few distant relatives.

According to RTÉ News,

“Researchers in the US said the development was consistent with Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS).”

Cases of FAS are considered to be incredibly rare, and was likely brought on “due to a so-called paraneoplastic neurological disorder, which developed as his immune system fought the cancer.” RTÉ News reported that:

“It is understood to be the first case of FAS in a patient with prostate cancer and the third such case in someone with a malignancy.”

Unfortunately the patient passed away despite treatment after he developed brain metastases and paralysis. Due to patient confidentiality, little else is known about the man.

Header image via Nils Nedel on Unsplash

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