An American man developed an Irish accent following treatment for metastatic prostate cancer. The man was in his 50s and had never been to Ireland.
The accent was described as “uncontrolled,” meaning the man couldn’t stop talking with an Irish brogue, even if he tried. He continued speaking this way until his death.
This is the first time a person has developed “foreign accent syndrome” linked to a prostate cancer diagnosis. And it is only the third case of foreign accent syndrome linked to cancer—the others were breast cancer and brain cancer.
Foreign accent syndrome usually happens as a result of brain damage, such as from a stroke. Stroke can cause different types of speech and language disorders, but foreign accent syndrome is one of the more unusual ones….