PET provides physicians with the ability to peer inside the body non-invasively and has revolutionized modern medicine. With PET, physicians can not only look at the body's internal structures but can see the metabolic signs of disease. This is all possible because of basic research in surprisingly diverse scientific areas ranging from studies examining the makeup of atoms and the fertilization of sea urchin eggs to those looking at bone replacement in the skeletons of rats. PET, in conjunction with other medical imaging techniques, gives physicians an unprecedented ability to spy on cancer and other diseases.
