Here, we utilized A549 lung carcinoma and MiaPaCa2 pancreatic cancer cells, which express high levels of NQO1, and HCT-116 colon cancer cells with low levels of NQO1, to test the hypothesis that [2H7]glucose could be used as a metabolic contrast agent sensitive to a β-lapachone-mediated reduction in glycolytic flux. Here, NQO1 is linked to familial pancreatic carcinoma.