Incredible but true. In a report published in the journal BMJ Case Reports, researchers and doctors from Duke University (USA) described a rare clinical case. This is a man in his fifties who suffers from hormone-sensitive metastatic prostate cancer. He was receiving androgen deprivation therapy and abiraterone/prednisone acetate.
Foreign accent syndrome: what is it?
So far nothing out of the ordinary, but this patient has developed foreign accent syndrome. He “introduced himself with an accent [de type] ‘Irish brogue’ out of control despite having no Irish background. He had no abnormalities on neurological examination, psychiatric history or MRI showing brain abnormalities at the onset of symptoms.explained the practitioners.
Around the world, regarding a hundred cases of the foreign accent syndrome have been recorded. This unusual speech disorder, which leads a person to suddenly take on a foreign accent for no known reason, is most often caused by brain damage (head shock, surgery, stroke). The most relayed case is that of a Norwegian woman. In 1941, she suffered head trauma during the bombing of Oslo. A few months later, she started speaking with what sounded like a German accent.
Prostate cancer progression leading to patient death
According to American doctors, who reported the case of the 50-year-old suffering from a tumour, he had to do additional examinations to understand the occurrence of the foreign accent syndrome. These revealed “progression of his prostate cancer, despite undetectable prostate-specific antigen levels. Biopsy confirmed transformation to neuroendocrine small cell prostate cancer”, can we read in the study.
Despite chemotherapy, his disease progressed, resulting in brain metastases and paralysis which led to his death. “His case was highly consistent with an underlying paraneoplastic neurological syndrome, despite a negative paraneoplastic serum panel,” the authors said. The paraneoplastic neurological syndrome is characterized by the acute and subacute onset of a neurological syndrome associated with active or subclinical cancer.