Ronald Reagan

“ The field is growing so fast that what today seems a breakthrough will tomorrow be routine. Powerful tools such as positron emission tomography, or PET, are being brought to bear on heart disease and cancer. Where nuclear medicine techniques were once used to provide images of tumors, the tumors themselves may now be located and treated using specially targeted isotopes linked to antibodies specific to the tumor. ”

“ All across the country, from medical centers to community hospitals, nuclear medicine departments are becoming as common as x-ray laboratories. This field unites the skills of medicine, physics, chemistry, and mathematics in a common focus-healing the sick. ”

“ For example, investigators can now examine the brain's processing of glucose, which it uses as a source of energy. Due to advances in nuclear medicine, the underlying pathological changes in such illnesses as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia are now closer to being understood. ”