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From The Engineer:
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.
Currently, there is no way to safely measure differences in pH in patients, but spotting these areas of acidity could be used to find cancers when they are very small.
Working with mice, the researchers found a new way to measure pH levels using this very sensitive MRI technique with a tagged form of bicarbonate. Bicarbonate, or baking soda, occurs naturally in the body, where it is involved in the acid-alkali balancing system.
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Re: Baking soda catches cancer
