Baking soda catches cancer

A chemical commonly called 'baking soda' which is found naturally in the body could be used to detect cancer with magnetic resonance imaging, according to Cambridge researchers.

Traditionally magnetic resonance imaging - or MRI - detects water and fat in the human body. By boosting MRI sensitivity more than 20,000 times - using a scanning technique developed by GE Healthcare - researchers can now image the molecules that cancer cells use to make energy and to grow.

This level of precision could be used to detect tumours and to find out if cancer treatments are working effectively at an earlier stage.

Almost all cancers have a lower pH than the surrounding tissue. Normally, the human body has a system of balancing chemicals with a low pH, acids, and chemicals with a high pH, alkalis, to maintain a constant, healthy pH level. In cancer, this balancing system is disturbed, and the tissue becomes more acidic.