what is a pet scan for cancer
a pet scan is a positron emission test and is a nuclear medicine study typically used to locate or identify cancers it occurs by using radio labeled sugar fdg or flurodeoxyglucose a glucose analog which ideally go to actively dividing tissues or metabilically active tissues such as tumors penn medicine answered a pet scan or positron emission tomography scan is a procedure to find malignant tumor cells in the body a small amount of radioactive glucose sugar is injected into a vein the pet scanner rotates around the body and makes a picture of where glucose is being used in the body