In our impression, the term antimatter will only be associated with international cutting-edge physicists, which is very far away from us ordinary people, and the use of antimatter in science and technology at this stage is an unlikely thing. However, in fact, antimatter has long been put into practical use, and some doctors have even used antimatter to fight cancer.
Antimatter is currently being used to help locate cancer cells, and the one that fulfills this function is called. A device for positron emission tomography, abbreviated as PET scanning.
PET scans work by using positron and electron annihilation for imaging, where doctors label some radioactive isotopes such as fluorine-18 onto the drug molecule fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) and inject fluorodeoxyglucose into the patient's body. After FDG enters the patient's body, it will be absorbed by various tissues in the body, and the stronger the tissue activity, the higher the absorption rate, and cancer cells happen to be the most active tissue.
When FDG is absorbed by body tissues, the radioactive isotope decays to release positrons. Annihilation occurs when a positron meets an electron, producing two beams of gamma rays with specific energies. These rays travel in opposite directions and are detected by detectors that surround the entire body.
Computers use these trajectories to determine where positrons are emitted. In a space of 10 to 20 minutes, millions of positrons may be emitted. The computer draws lines to determine the intersection of these lines, which are possible clusters of cancer.
Antimatter locating cancer cells is technically advanced, yet this advanced technique is not without its drawbacks:
1. Due to the special tools required to manufacture radioisotopes, not all hospitals can provide PET scanning.
2. Many positron emission isotopes have very short half-lives, which means that these isotopes must be manufactured close to the place of use, and sometimes hospitals need to have particle accelerators on site.
3. In addition, particle accelerators may damage tracer molecules (such as fluorodeoxyglucose), so they cannot be synthesized before the isotope is manufactured.
4. PET scans are not as accurate as MRI or CT scans in locating cancer.
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