My Healthcare News & Research — March 15, 2026 · Sodium Bicarbonate and Cancer

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Sodium Bicarbonate and Cancer: A Comprehensive Review of Emerging Research

An expanding body of scientific research is investigating the therapeutic potential of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) — commonly known as baking soda — as an adjunct to conventional cancer treatments. No study has shown sodium bicarbonate to cure cancer on its own. Most of the published work is in cells and mice, where bicarbonate has been reported to raise the pH of the acidic tumor microenvironment, to improve responses to some chemotherapy and immunotherapy drugs, and to reduce metastasis. Human evidence is limited to small, mostly single-center studies of bicarbonate injected into liver tumors during chemoembolization and retrospective reports of oral “alkalization therapy”, while dose-finding trials of oral bicarbonate struggled with poor tolerability. This article surveys the published studies, the trial record and the documented hazards.

Table of Contents

  1. Overview
  2. Understanding Tumor Acidity and the Warburg Effect
  3. Preclinical Studies: Reducing Metastasis
  4. Enhancing Immunotherapy with Bicarbonate
  5. Potentiating Chemotherapy
  6. Sodium Bicarbonate Nanoparticles: Next-Generation Delivery
  7. TILA-TACE: Bicarbonate in Liver Cancer Chemoembolization
  8. Alkalization Therapy in Pancreatic Cancer
  9. Ovarian Cancer: Bicarbonate as Adjuvant
  10. Transdermal Bicarbonate for Bladder Cancer
  11. Prostate Cancer Prevention in Transgenic Models
  12. Phase I Clinical Trials and Safety
  13. Documented Hazards and Limitations
  14. Key Research Papers
  15. Connections
  16. Featured Videos

1. Understanding Tumor Acidity and the Warburg Effect

Cancer cells metabolize glucose differently from normal cells. Through a phenomenon called the Warburg effect, tumor cells preferentially use glycolysis even in the presence of oxygen, producing large amounts of lactic acid. This acidifies the extracellular tumor microenvironment (TME): solid tumors have a significantly more acidic extracellular pH than normal tissues, as animal and cell studies using magnetic resonance spectroscopy have measured [10].

Reviews describe this acidic environment as associated with tumor progression rather than a mere byproduct. A clinical review in Frontiers in Oncology by Hamaguchi et al. (2022) describes an acidic TME as associated with cancer progression, multidrug resistance and immune escape, and cites an earlier laboratory report of a close to 2,000-fold increase in doxorubicin resistance when intracellular pH rose from 7.0 to 7.4. The same review notes that there are few clinical reports of cancer treatment combined with alkalization therapy [1].

A comprehensive review by Yang, Zhong, and Yuan (2020) in Integrative Cancer Therapies further detailed how the acidic TME causes drug resistance, immune evasion, chronic autophagy, decomposition of the tumor matrix, and epithelial-mesenchymal transformation — all of which accelerate tumor invasion and metastasis [2].

The rationale researchers give for sodium bicarbonate therapy is that buffering the acidic tumor microenvironment might reverse these conditions and favor immune function and drug uptake. Whether this translates into benefit for patients has not been established.

2. Preclinical Studies: Reducing Metastasis

One of the most cited studies in this field was published by Robey et al. (2009) in Cancer Research. The team at the University of Arizona Cancer Center reported that oral sodium bicarbonate selectively increased the pH of tumors and reduced spontaneous metastases in mouse models of metastatic breast cancer. Using 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy, they found a significant rise in tumor extracellular (but not intracellular) pH; the treatment reduced the rate of lymph node involvement without changing circulating tumor cell levels, and significantly reduced the formation of hepatic metastases following intrasplenic injection. In tail-vein models the results were mixed: bicarbonate inhibited metastases from PC3M prostate cancer cells but not from B16 melanoma [3].

A follow-up mouse study by Robey and Martin (2011) in BMC Cancer tested whether adding dichloroacetate (DCA) improved oral bicarbonate in a metastatic breast cancer model (MDA-MB-231). Survival was longest in mice given bicarbonate-based therapies; the combination did not significantly enhance bicarbonate alone (pulmonary lesions were smaller in that group), and DCA on its own did not reduce tumor size or metastases or improve survival. The authors also noted that recent assessments of oral bicarbonate as a cancer intervention had revealed limitations [4].

These mouse studies are the basis for the idea that systemic buffering could target the acidic tumor microenvironment and slow cancer spread, even without directly killing primary tumor cells.

3. Enhancing Immunotherapy with Bicarbonate

A large share of recent sodium bicarbonate research, all of it in mice and cell culture so far, asks whether neutralizing tumor acidity can improve responses to immunotherapy.

A 2016 study by Pilon-Thomas, Kodumudi, and colleagues at the Moffitt Cancer Center, published in Cancer Research, reported that an acidic pH environment blocked T-cell activation in vitro; IFN-γ secretion was completely abolished in T cells cultured under acidic conditions, and TNF-α secretion was decreased. In mice, bicarbonate monotherapy impaired the growth of some cancer types, where it was associated with increased T-cell infiltration [5].

Combining bicarbonate with anti-CTLA-4 or anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors, or with adoptive T-cell transfer, improved antitumor responses in multiple mouse models, including cures in some animals; the models included B16 melanoma and Panc02 pancreatic cancer [5]. In a 2016 news report on the study, senior author Dr. Robert Gillies was quoted: "By neutralizing this acid with buffers, we were able to improve the response of melanoma and pancreatic tumors to immunotherapy." [7]

A 2023 study by Rahman et al. at Henry Ford Hospital, published in Cancers, tested oral bicarbonate with anti-PD-L1 antibody treatment in a triple-negative breast cancer mouse model (4T1-Luc). Bicarbonate increased extracellular pH in tumor tissue, accompanied by increased T-cell infiltration and activation and higher IFN-γ, IL-2 and IL-12p40 mRNA expression in tumors; these changes were further enhanced with combined bicarbonate and anti-PD-L1 therapy, which also inhibited tumor growth and extended survival in the mice [6].

The 2016 CancerNetwork news report summarized the Moffitt findings as showing that neutralizing intratumoral pH may improve responses to immunotherapy; these results come from mouse models and have not been confirmed in a published human trial of oral bicarbonate with immunotherapy [7].

4. Potentiating Chemotherapy

The acidic tumor microenvironment creates a physiological barrier that prevents many chemotherapy drugs from penetrating cancer cells effectively. Ionizable weak-base drugs such as doxorubicin freely permeate cell membranes in their uncharged form, but in the acidic TME they become charged and their cellular permeability is severely retarded — a phenomenon known as "ion trapping."

A 2019 study by Abumanhal-Masarweh et al. published in the Journal of Controlled Release addressed this challenge directly. The team loaded 100-nm liposomes with sodium bicarbonate and used them as adjuvants to elevate tumor pH. In triple-negative breast cancer cells (4T1), combined treatment with doxorubicin and liposomal sodium bicarbonate enhanced drug uptake and increased anticancer activity. In mice given the liposomes intravenously, 3.7% of the injected liposomal dose reached the tumor after 24 hours — a 21-fold increase compared to free non-liposomal bicarbonate (0.17%). Analysis of the tumor microenvironment demonstrated increased immune cell populations (T-cells, B-cells, and macrophages) in tumors treated with liposomal bicarbonate [8].

A separate 2022 study by Ando et al. at Tokushima University, published in the Journal of Controlled Release, reported that oral sodium bicarbonate enhanced the tumor-growth inhibitory effect of a liposomal doxorubicin formulation in a Colon26 tumor-bearing mouse model, without worsening systemic side effects [9].

Earlier foundational work by Raghunand et al. (1999) published in the British Journal of Cancer had already reported that MCF-7 human breast cancer cells were more susceptible to doxorubicin at pH 7.4 than at pH 6.8, and that sodium bicarbonate in drinking water raised the extracellular pH of MCF-7 xenografts in mice and significantly improved the effectiveness of doxorubicin against them — which the authors described as the first in vivo demonstration of “physiological” resistance to weakly basic drugs [10].

5. Sodium Bicarbonate Nanoparticles: Next-Generation Delivery

One of the major challenges with conventional sodium bicarbonate therapy is delivering adequate concentrations to the tumor. Several laboratory groups are testing nanoparticle forms; all of the work below is in cells and animals.

A 2023 study by Ding et al. published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition described the preparation of alkalescent sodium bicarbonate nanoparticles (NaHCO3 NPs) via a fast microemulsion method. These nanoparticles achieve two simultaneous anticancer effects: they neutralize lactic acid in the acidic TME to reverse immunosuppression, and they release high amounts of Na+ ions inside tumor cells, inducing a surge in intracellular osmolarity that activates the pyroptosis pathway and immunogenic cell death (ICD). This releases damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) and inflammatory factors that boost immune responses. In mouse experiments, the authors report that the nanoparticles inhibited primary and distal tumor growth as well as tumor metastasis [11].

In 2024, He et al. published a study in Nano Today describing drug-free sodium bicarbonate nanoparticles with high water tolerance, designed as a “gas therapy” to selectively induce non-apoptotic death of cancer cells, according to the paper's title; no abstract was available in PubMed or Crossref to confirm further details [12].

Researchers pursue these nanoparticle approaches because high-dose oral bicarbonate is limited by gastrointestinal side effects; none has been tested in people.

6. TILA-TACE: Bicarbonate in Liver Cancer Chemoembolization

The most extensive human data on sodium bicarbonate in cancer come from TILA-TACE (Targeting Intratumoral Lactic Acidosis Transarterial Chemoembolization) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common form of liver cancer.

The original TILA-TACE study, published by Chao et al. (2016) in eLife, was a pilot investigation with a nonrandomized cohort (57 patients with large HCC) and a randomized controlled study (20 patients). TACE combined with bicarbonate yielded an objective response rate (ORR) of 100%, compared with 44.4% (nonrandomized) and 63.6% (randomized) for TACE alone, and viable tumor residue was 6.4-fold lower with bicarbonate in the nonrandomized study. The authors called for larger trials to verify the findings [13]. A review describes the approach as adding a 5% sodium bicarbonate solution to the cytotoxic drugs of conventional TACE [2].

A real-world study by the same Zhejiang University group, published in Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy (2025), enrolled 413 patients (83.3% with advanced-stage HCC) without a control group; tumor thrombus and extrahepatic disease were treated with radiation therapy. The ORR of HCC tumors to TILA-TACE was 99.01%, including a complete response in 72.77% of patients, and the median survival of advanced-stage patients was 27 months. The main adverse events were transient liver enzyme or bilirubin abnormalities (86.44% and 56.66%, respectively), consistent with the known side-effect profile of standard TACE [14].

The same group posted a 2025 preprint on Research Square [15], later published in Oncogene (2026), reporting that intratumoral bicarbonate acted as an adjuvant to PD-1 blockade in mouse models of HCC. In an accompanying prospective, single-arm clinical study of 30 patients (28 advanced-stage, 2 intermediate-stage) given an anti-PD-1 antibody (tislelizumab) plus intratumoral 5% sodium bicarbonate, the ORR was 93.3% (53.3% complete, 40.0% partial responses), median progression-free survival was 31 months, and median overall survival was not reached; the authors report the treatment was well tolerated [27].

These results come from one hospital group; the only randomized data are from the 20-patient study, and independent multi-center randomized trials have not been published. This is bicarbonate infused directly into the tumor's arteries during a procedure, which is different from drinking baking soda.

7. Alkalization Therapy in Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies. The published human data on oral “alkalization therapy” in it come from one clinic group in Kyoto and are retrospective.

Hamaguchi, Narui, and Wada (2020) published a study in Anticancer Research evaluating the effects of alkalization therapy on chemotherapy outcomes in 28 patients with metastatic or recurrent pancreatic cancer. The protocol combined standard chemotherapy with an alkaline diet and oral sodium bicarbonate supplementation (3.0–5.0 g/day). Patients with a urine pH greater than 7.0 had a median overall survival of 16.1 months, compared with 4.7 months for those with a urine pH of 7.0 or lower (p<0.05); the authors concluded that alkalization therapy “may be associated with” better outcomes [16].

A retrospective case-control study by the same group, published in In Vivo (2020), compared 36 patients given alkalization therapy plus chemotherapy at the group's clinic with 89 control patients given chemotherapy alone at Kyoto University Hospital. Median overall survival was 15.4 months versus 10.8 months (p<0.005), and patients whose urine pH rose (pH above 7.0 or an increase greater than 1.0) also had significantly longer survival than the control group [17].

A follow-up retrospective study of 98 stage 4 patients treated at the same clinic (alkaline diet, bicarbonate and citric acid alongside standard chemotherapy), published in Cancers (2023), reported a median overall survival of 13.2 months from diagnosis; median survival was 29.9, 15.2 and 8.0 months for mean urine pH of 7.5 or above, 6.5 to 7.5, and below 6.5 respectively — a trend that did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.0639) [18].

These studies are retrospective, small and from a single clinic group, with controls drawn from a different hospital in the case-control study; they show associations, not that alkalization therapy causes longer survival.

8. Ovarian Cancer: Bicarbonate as Adjuvant

Two 2024 papers address sodium bicarbonate in ovarian cancer.

A 2024 study published in Frontiers in Oncology by Bogdanov et al. from the Napalkov Saint Petersburg Clinical Research Center presented both preclinical and clinical evidence for bicarbonate in ovarian cancer with malignant ascites. In mice with Ehrlich ascites carcinoma, intraperitoneal sodium bicarbonate solution gave a median survival of 30 days, compared with 18 days with sodium chloride solution and 14 days in untreated mice (p<0.05). In a single case report, a patient with treatment-resistant ovarian cancer received intraperitoneal sodium bicarbonate perfusions, resulting in a CA-125 reduction from 5,600 U/mL to 2,200 U/mL and complete disappearance of ascites [19].

A separate 2024 laboratory and mouse study by Li et al. at Tongji University, published in Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, investigated the combination of sodium bicarbonate with Olaparib (a PARP inhibitor) for ovarian cancer. The researchers reported that sodium bicarbonate induced cytotoxicity in ovarian cancer cells and hindered migration and invasion in vitro, that it augmented the anti-cancer efficacy of Olaparib, and that in mice the combination inhibited tumor growth more than either treatment alone. The mechanism involves the cGMP/PKG pathway: sodium bicarbonate scavenges reactive oxygen species (ROS) and promotes M1 macrophage transformation, thereby enhancing Olaparib's anticancer activity. The study concluded that sodium bicarbonate holds great potential as an adjuvant to established PARP inhibitor therapy [20].

9. Transdermal Bicarbonate for Bladder Cancer

A 2026 mouse study published in Frontiers in Immunology by Oluwatola, Bazargan, Irrera, Pilon-Thomas, and colleagues from the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center introduced a novel approach: transdermal delivery of sodium bicarbonate for bladder cancer treatment [21].

Recognizing that oral sodium bicarbonate therapy is limited by the high doses required and gastrointestinal disturbances, the team tested a proprietary transdermal sodium bicarbonate formulation developed with a company whose employees are co-authors. In a murine bladder cancer model, the transdermal formulation increased intratumoral pH as measured by Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer MRI (CEST-MRI) and also alkalized the urine.

In the mice, the transdermal formulation significantly reduced tumor burden, improved antigen-specific CD8+ T-cell responses, and led to durable antitumor immune responses. The authors concluded that transdermal delivery is more clinically applicable than oral bicarbonate for bladder cancer; it has not yet been tested in patients [21].

10. Prostate Cancer Prevention in Transgenic Models

Research using the TRAMP (Transgenic Adenocarcinoma of Mouse Prostate) model has been used to test whether sodium bicarbonate can prevent prostate cancer in mice.

In a 2012 study in the Journal of Urology, Ibrahim-Hashim, Gillies, Gatenby and colleagues at Moffitt Cancer Center randomized 37 TRAMP mice to a control group or to 200 mM sodium bicarbonate in drinking water started between ages 4 and 10 weeks. All 18 control mice developed prostate cancer (median survival 37 weeks). When bicarbonate started before age 6 weeks (10 mice), all reached 76 weeks without radiographic evidence of prostate cancer; when it started after age 6 weeks (9 mice), cancer development was no different from controls [26]. The group's 2022 review in Frontiers in Oncology describes this work as showing that early treatment prevented intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN), and that doubling the bicarbonate concentration after PIN lesions developed prevented metastasis [22].

Related cell-culture work by Li et al. (2021) at Emory University, published in Oncology Reports, found that the sodium bicarbonate transporter NBCe1 is robustly expressed in prostate adenocarcinoma tissue and regulates the proliferation and viability of human prostate cancer cell lines LNCaP and PC3, suggesting that pH regulation pathways are intrinsically linked to prostate cancer biology [23].

11. Phase I Clinical Trials and Safety

The Moffitt group ran three early-phase trials of oral sodium bicarbonate in cancer patients (NCT01350583, NCT01198821, NCT01846429), described by Gillies, Ibrahim-Hashim, Ordway, and Gatenby (2022) in Frontiers in Oncology. The first, a dose-escalation trial with a target of 28 patients, accrued two and was closed; the second accrued eight; the third was terminated with nine evaluable subjects, all of whom reported grade 1–2 gastrointestinal disorders including vomiting. The authors write that gastrointestinal irritability and discomfort, as well as poor taste, were the main causes of low compliance in all three trials [22]. A 2026 paper from the same center describes the clinical applicability of oral bicarbonate as very limited because of the high dosage required and the gastrointestinal disturbances that arise [21].

The 2022 Hamaguchi review cites a study reporting that 90 days of sodium bicarbonate consumption (median 0.17 g/kg/day) was feasible and safe, with an increase in urine pH used as a surrogate marker of buffering; it did not measure effects on cancer [1].

The University of Arizona registered a chronic oral bicarbonate feasibility study in cancer patients, NCT02531919 (“Extended Use of Sodium Bicarbonate in Patients With Cancer”); ClinicalTrials.gov lists it as completed in 2015 with 15 participants enrolled [24].

A 2021 review by Wang et al. published in Chinese Chemical Letters, titled “Sodium bicarbonate, an inorganic salt and a potential active agent for cancer therapy”, surveys the preclinical and emerging clinical work [25].

12. Documented Hazards and Limitations

The published record also documents the following limitations and hazards:

Reading the evidence: In animal studies, sodium bicarbonate raises tumor pH and improves responses to some chemotherapy and immunotherapy drugs. In people, the evidence consists of small single-group studies of bicarbonate infused into liver tumors during chemoembolization, retrospective clinic reports of oral alkalization therapy, and early oral trials limited by poor tolerability. No trial has shown bicarbonate to replace standard cancer treatment. Decisions about cancer treatment belong with an oncologist.

Key Research Papers

  1. Hamaguchi R, Isowa M, Narui R, Morikawa H, Wada H. "Clinical review of alkalization therapy in cancer treatment." Frontiers in Oncology, 2022; 12:1003588. Full Text — PubMed PMID: 36185175
  2. Yang M, Zhong X, Yuan Y. "Does Baking Soda Function as a Magic Bullet for Patients With Cancer? A Mini Review." Integrative Cancer Therapies, 2020; 19:1534735420922579. Full Text — PubMed PMID: 32448009
  3. Robey IF, Baggett BK, Kirkpatrick ND, et al. "Bicarbonate increases tumor pH and inhibits spontaneous metastases." Cancer Research, 2009; 69(6):2260–2268. — PubMed PMID: 19276390
  4. Robey IF, Martin NK. "Bicarbonate and dichloroacetate: Evaluating pH altering therapies in a mouse model for metastatic breast cancer." BMC Cancer, 2011; 11:235. Full Text — PubMed PMID: 21663677
  5. Pilon-Thomas S, Kodumudi KN, El-Kenawi AE, et al. "Neutralization of tumor acidity improves antitumor responses to immunotherapies." Cancer Research, 2016; 76(6):1381–1390. Full Text — PubMed PMID: 26719539
  6. Rahman A, Janic B, Rahman T, Singh H, Ali H, Rattan R, Kazi M, Ali MM. "Immunotherapy Enhancement by Targeting Extracellular Tumor pH in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Mouse Model." Cancers, 2023; 15(20):4931. Full Text — PubMed PMID: 37894298
  7. Schieszer J. "Neutralizing Intratumoral pH May Improve Responses to Immunotherapy." CancerNetwork (news report), March 23, 2016. Article
  8. Abumanhal-Masarweh H, et al. "Sodium bicarbonate nanoparticles modulate the tumor pH and enhance the cellular uptake of doxorubicin." Journal of Controlled Release, 2019; 296:1–13. ScienceDirect — PubMed PMID: 30615983
  9. Ando H, Ikeda A, Tagami M, Matsuo NCA, Shimizu T, Ishima Y, Eshima K, Ishida T. "Oral administration of sodium bicarbonate can enhance the therapeutic outcome of Doxil via neutralizing the acidic tumor microenvironment." Journal of Controlled Release, 2022; 350:414–420. ScienceDirect — PubMed PMID: 35988781
  10. Raghunand N, He X, van Sluis R, et al. "Enhancement of chemotherapy by manipulation of tumour pH." British Journal of Cancer, 1999; 80(7):1005–1011. Full Text — PubMed PMID: 10362108
  11. Ding B, Zheng P, Tan J, et al. "Sodium Bicarbonate Nanoparticles for Amplified Cancer Immunotherapy by Inducing Pyroptosis and Regulating Lactic Acid Metabolism." Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2023; 62(40):e202307706. Wiley — PubMed PMID: 37587061
  12. He J, Dai X, Wang Z, Ye J, Wang J, Feng J, Zhang X. "Construction of drug-free sodium bicarbonate nanoparticles with high water-tolerance for gas therapy to selectively induce non-apoptotic death of cancer cells." Nano Today, 2024; 58:102463. ScienceDirect — DOI: 10.1016/j.nantod.2024.102463
  13. Chao M, Wu H, Jin K, Li B, Wu J, Zhang G, Yang G, Hu X. "A nonrandomized cohort and a randomized study of local control of large hepatocarcinoma by targeting intratumoral lactic acidosis." eLife, 2016; 5:e15691. Full Text — PubMed PMID: 27481188
  14. Jin K, Zeng S, Li B, Zhang G, Wu J, Hu X, Chao M. "Bicarbonate-integrated transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) in real-world hepatocellular carcinoma." Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, 2025; 10(1):281. Full Text — PubMed PMID: 40887482
  15. Preprint (not peer-reviewed; peer-reviewed version is ref. 27). "Intratumoral Bicarbonate Functions as an Adjuvant to Potentiate PD-1 Blockade in Hepatocellular Carcinoma." Research Square, 2025. Preprint
  16. Hamaguchi R, Narui R, Wada H. "Effects of Alkalization Therapy on Chemotherapy Outcomes in Metastatic or Recurrent Pancreatic Cancer." Anticancer Research, 2020; 40(2):873–880. Full Text — PubMed PMID: 32014931
  17. Hamaguchi R, Ito T, Narui R, Morikawa H, Uemoto S, Wada H. "Effects of Alkalization Therapy on Chemotherapy Outcomes in Advanced Pancreatic Cancer: A Retrospective Case-Control Study." In Vivo, 2020; 34(5):2623–2629. Full Text — PubMed PMID: 32871792
  18. Isowa M, Hamaguchi R, Narui R, Morikawa H, Okamoto T, Wada H. "Potential of Alkalization Therapy for the Management of Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer: A Retrospective Study." Cancers, 2023; 16(1):61. PMC — PubMed PMID: 38201489
  19. Bogdanov A, Verlov N, Bogdanov A, et al. "Tumor alkalization therapy: misconception or good therapeutics perspective? – the case of malignant ascites." Frontiers in Oncology, 2024; 14:1342802. Full Text — PubMed PMID: 38390269
  20. Li X, Sun Y, Guo J, Cheng Y, Lu W, Yang W, Wang L, Cheng Z. "Sodium bicarbonate potentiates the antitumor effects of Olaparib in ovarian cancer via cGMP/PKG-mediated ROS scavenging and M1 macrophage transformation." Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, 2024; 180:117509. ScienceDirect — PubMed PMID: 39442234
  21. Oluwatola O, Bazargan S, Irrera P, et al., Pilon-Thomas S. "Transdermal bicarbonate buffer therapy increases intratumoral pH and elicits antitumor responses in bladder cancer." Frontiers in Immunology, 2026; 17:1706250. Full Text — PubMed PMID: 41909665
  22. Gillies RJ, Ibrahim-Hashim A, Ordway B, Gatenby RA. "Back to basic: Trials and tribulations of alkalizing agents in cancer." Frontiers in Oncology, 2022; 12:981718. Full Text — PubMed PMID: 36452492
  23. Li JM, Lee S, Zafar R, Shin E, Choi I. "Sodium bicarbonate transporter NBCe1 regulates proliferation and viability of human prostate cancer cells LNCaP and PC3." Oncology Reports, 2021; 46(1):129. Full Text — PubMed PMID: 34013380
  24. University of Arizona. "Extended Use of Sodium Bicarbonate in Patients With Cancer (Chronic Oral Bicarbonate Feasibility Study), NCT02531919." Completed 2015. ClinicalTrials.gov
  25. Wang Y, Zhou X, Wang W, Wu Y, Qian Z, Peng Q. "Sodium bicarbonate, an inorganic salt and a potential active agent for cancer therapy." Chinese Chemical Letters, 2021; 32(12):3687–3695. ScienceDirect — DOI: 10.1016/j.cclet.2021.06.032
  26. Ibrahim-Hashim A, Cornnell HH, Abrahams D, Lloyd M, Bui M, Gillies RJ, Gatenby RA. "Systemic buffers inhibit carcinogenesis in TRAMP mice." Journal of Urology, 2012; 188(2):624–631. — PubMed PMID: 22704445
  27. Wang D, Jin K, Ying C, Li B, Zhang G, Li J, Chen L, Chao M, Hu X. "Intratumoral bicarbonate functions as an adjuvant to potentiate PD-1 blockade in hepatocellular carcinoma." Oncogene, 2026; 45(27):2683–2698. — PubMed PMID: 42243329
  28. Thomas SH, Stone CK. "Acute toxicity from baking soda ingestion." American Journal of Emergency Medicine, 1994; 12(1):57–59. — PubMed PMID: 8285975
  29. Al-Abri SA, Kearney T. "Baking soda misuse as a home remedy: case experience of the California Poison Control System." Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 2014; 39(1):73–77. — PubMed PMID: 24313600
  30. Diaconu A, Florea I, Vlad CE, Achiței R, Florea L. "Metabolic alkalosis – an adverse effect of baking soda misuse: A case report and literature review." Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine, 2022; 24(5):658. — PubMed PMID: 36168420
  31. Han YJ, Roy S, Siau AMPL, Majid A. "Binge-eating and sodium bicarbonate: a potent combination for gastric rupture in adults – two case reports and a review of literature." Journal of Eating Disorders, 2022; 10(1):157. — PubMed PMID: 36348449
  32. Sarwal A, et al. "Life-threatening alkalosis from baking soda pica in an end stage renal disease hemodialysis patient." Hemodialysis International, 2022; 26(2):E16–E18. — PubMed PMID: 34907640

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PubMed Topic Searches

  1. Clinical trials on sodium bicarbonate and cancer — PubMed search
  2. Clinical trials on tumor pH and bicarbonate — PubMed search
  3. Clinical trials on alkalization therapy in cancer — PubMed search
  4. Clinical trials on bicarbonate and immunotherapy — PubMed search
  5. Clinical trials on Warburg effect in cancer — PubMed search
  6. Clinical trials on tumor acidity and metastasis — PubMed search

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