A chemical commonly called baking soda which is found naturally in the body could be used to detect cancer with magnetic resonance imaging, reveals a Cancer Research UK study published on 28 May 2008 in Nature (ePub ahead of print; PMID: 18509335).

Traditionally magnetic resonance imaging (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.

Lead researcher Professor Kevin Brindle, from Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Research Institute, said: "This technique could be used as a highly-sensitive early warning system for the signs of cancer. Establishing such tools is a major challenge in cancer research.

"By exploiting the body's natural pH balancing system, we have found a potentially safe way of measuring pH to see what's going on inside patients. MRI can pick up on the abnormal pH levels found in cancer and it is possible that this could be used to pinpoint where the disease is present and when it is responding to treatment."

For the full press release and other Cancer Research UK news, see online News.

For an overview of Kevin Brindle's research, see his research profile.