• Question: what PET stand for if i does stand fro anything?

    Asked by daynab1503 to Charlotte, Dhvanil, Frank, Jim, Leila on 11 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by ahas12.
    • Photo: Jim O Doherty

      Jim O Doherty answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      PET stands for “Positron Emission Tomography”, which is a fancy term for the type of scanners we use to scan patients after we inject them with radioactive dye to see where their cancer is

    • Photo: Dhvanil Karia

      Dhvanil Karia answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      Jim is correct PET stands for “Positron Emmission Tomography”… Certain elements found in nature( can also be produced by humans) give out radiation in the form of positrons. We combine these elements with a type of glucose so cancer cells eat them up to grow. Once the elements are taken up the cancer cells we scan the patient (in a PET machine) to see where the positrons are being emitted from and thus find where the cancer is present.

    • Photo: Leila Nichol

      Leila Nichol answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      Positron Emission Tomography, it’s kind of like a reverse CT scanner, instead of having the radiation directed through you, you are injected with radioactive material which then emits particles from you which is detected by the scanner. It’s very good at showing us exactly where the tumour is, but not so good at showing anatomy. Because of this, nowadays there are normally PET/CT scanners!

      (not to do with animals!)

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