SHOOTING LIGHT | Lucy Rose

“This artwork depicts the PET scan of a woman who presented in her mid-40’s with locally advanced right breast cancer. These are sequential cross-sectional images starting at the axillary lymph nodes in the top two images then moving downward through the right breast (right breast is at left side of image). With PET imaging, cancer cells that are highly metabolic absorb an injected solution of radioactive glucose and emit colors ranging from red to orange to yellow to intense white. This patient had cancer in many axillary lymph nodes and throughout the breast, the overlying skin and the underlying muscle. Of note, the heart as seen in the bottom two images always lights up in PET imaging because it is a highly metabolic organ.”

Lucy Rose is a lifelong multimedia visual artist with an affinity for creating beauty out of materials that some would consider unsettling. She graduated from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2020 and is currently an OB/GYN resident at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

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