Before a PET scan, you will be given a needle (injection) containing a radioactive sugar (tracer). You will then need to wait between 30 and 90 minutes to let the mixture move around your body.
The radioactive sugar goes to parts of the body that have lots of cells growing, to help show where the cancer is. Because cancer cells absorb more radioactive sugar mixture than healthy cells, cancer cells show up brighter on the PET scan.
Before you have a PET scan, speak with your doctor about the benefits and risks and any other questions you have.
During the PET scan, you will lie on a table while it moves through the PET machine. It is important to lie still during the scan and not to talk, otherwise normal muscles will show up on the scan. The machine will send pictures to a computer screen. Your doctor can look at the pictures on the computer screen to check for any signs of cancer or if the cancer has spread. It is important to know that other illnesses than cancer, such as infection, can also show up on a PET scan.
A PET scan is painless and usually take about two hours.
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