The naturally-occurring chemical bicarbonate, used to make baking soda, could be used to detect cancer, a new study suggests. The University of Cambridge researchers found that using bicarbonate with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could help them to detect the cancer cells.

Since the cancer cells make use of these cells to make energy and to grow at an early stage, researchers say the illuminate with the use of new MRI technique and can be easily detected.

By experimenting on mice, scientists used a very sensitive MRI technique with a tagged form of bicarbonate and spotted the cancer cells, which have a lower pH than the surrounding tissue.

Using the new technique, which is 20,000 times more sensitive than usual MRI scanning, scientists were able to track changes in the chemical and therefore identify cancers even in the very early stages.

The more acidic tumours have more bicarbonate converted into carbon dioxide which hold key for detection. The new method is also important because the chemical used (bicarbonate) is non-toxic and can be safely used in humans, scientists wrote in the Nature journal.