What is PET?
PET is a camera that produces powerful images of the human body's biological functions and
reveals the mysteries of health and disease.
What can PET tell me about cancer?
Where is the tumor?
The PET scan shows a chain of lymph node tumors in the neck, chest, and abdomen. Why are these
tumors so visible? The patient is injected with a glucose tracer. Although glucose is used by
all cells, more glucose is used by cells with increased metaolism. Because cancer cells are
highly metabolic and use more glucose than neighboring cells, they are easily seen on the PET scan.
Is the tumor benign or malignant?
The high glucose metabolism of these Hodgkin's Lymphoma lesions indicates that they are malignant.
Armed with this knowledge, the physician is able to determine the best method for treatment.
Is my treatment working/Has the cancer spread?
After chemotherapy, a PET scan proves that the cancer treatment has been effective. A lesion is
found on a chest x-ray, and a PET scan is performed to see if it is benign or malignant. The PET
scan reveals that the lesion is malignant and also shows that metastases have spread to the right
lung. PET can follow the course of the cancer through the body and accurately show the extent of
the disease.
What can PET tell me about heart disease?
PET is the gold standard to determine teh viability of heart tissue for revasculariztion.
PET is the most accurate test to reveal coronary artery disease or rule out its presence.
The PET images show inadequate blood flow to the heart during stress undetected by other
non-invasive cardiac tests.
What can PET tell me about brain disorders?
Parkinson's Disease
PET images of the brain will show if you have Parkinson's disease. A labeled amino aid called F-DOPA is used
with PET to see if your brain has a deficiency in dopamine synthesis. If it doesn't, then you do
not suffer from Parkinson's.
Alzheimer's Disease
PET scans show a very consistent diagnostic pattern for Alzheimer's disease, where certain
regions of the brain have decreased metabolism early in the disease. In fact, this
pattern often can be recognized several years before a physician is able to confirm
the diagnosis and is also used to differentiate Alzheimr's from other confounding types
of dementia or depression.
Seizure Disorders
PET images of the brain identify regions of reduced glucose metabolism, pinpointing
the epileptogenic tissue. Surgical techniques are now available to successfully remove
the tissue, leading to a definitive cure of the seizure disorder in 80% of these children.
More Information
For more information please visit:
www.petscan.org