Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is one of the most sensitive imaging techniques and has been widely used in tumor diagnosis. It can provide a noninvasive and regional estimation of a specific organ with its biochemical processes by introducing a radioactive isotope labeled molecule. Radiolabeled nanoparticles, which have unique characteristics such as large surface area, multifunctionality and long circulation, show great potential in molecular imaging. In this article, we describe the advances in the development of nanoparticle-based tumor PET imaging. Besides the types of radiolabeled nanoparticles (iron-oxide nanoparticles, quantum dots, upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs)), the radionuclides, targeting strategies and multimodality imaging are also mentioned.