Detection of 2-HG by MRS represents a completed non-invasive method with which to determine the presence of IDH mutations in gliomas, irrespective of the sequence of the mutation or the mutation maps to IDH1 or IDH2. Importantly, this approach represents the only example in human cancer in which a genomic feature can be identified specifically by using imaging-based metabolic profiling. This evidence concerns the gene IDH1 and cancer.