How does PET see cancer cells?
The patient is injected with a small amount of radioactive tracer attached to a simple glucose compound. Ever cell in your body requires glucose, but abnormal cells,which are highly metabolic (such as cancerous cells) require more glucose then normal cells. Abnormal cells attract the radioactive tracer with glucose more then normal cells. The areas of abnormality show up as hot spots on the 3-dimensional scan.
