Cancer Simply Explained

Dr. Visar Vela is a medical diagnostic assistant. His passion for cancer research and diagnostics arose while working on his master’s thesis, which involved researching blood cancer in Adrian Ochsenbein’s lab at the University of Bern. During his PhD in biological medicine, he uncovered the mutational landscape of a rare lymphoma type at the Department of Pathology in Basel under Stefan Dirnhofer and Alexandar Tzankov. By writing this book, he hopes that the reader will get the best possible information about cancer development and cancer diagnostics.

Besides having a passion for cancer research, Dr. Vela loves jogging, sailing, and cycling. He grew up in the lovely Swiss Alps, in the Valais. He still has his most creative phases at the airport. He says that airports are great sources of problems that need solving, such as cancer research.

MSc. Besmira Sabani, a dedicated PhD candidate at Zürich University of Applied Sciences in Wädenswil, Zurich, delves into the innovative field of pharmaceutical technology and drug discovery in Steffi Lehmann’s lab. With a strong focus on the development of potential drug delivery systems, Sabani's work highlights her journey from her early academic years to her first publication on novel functionalization strategy for the target delivery of extracellular vesicles (EVs) to cancer therapy. She is passionate about finding new approaches in nanotechnology enabling the targeted delivery of drugs to their site of action. With this book she hopes that the reader will get more information about the latest cancer treatment technologies.

Besides having a passion for cancer research, Miss Sabani loves cycling and solving puzzles, similar to cancer, whose complexity is puzzling us for decades. She grew up in Minusio, Ticino.

Dr. med. Günther Spahn studied medicine in Tübingen. For his MD in immunology and vaccine research, he worked at the Luxembourg National Institute as a pioneer in the field of measles vaccine research with Prof. Claude Muller. For his biomedical postdoc, he joined Prof. Pecher at Max Delbrück-Institute in Berlin in the field of cancer immunology before starting his clinical career as an academic trainee at Charité Berlin in hematology and oncology. As a scientific member of the leukemia and lymphoma network in Germany, he worked as a consultant in multiple clinical centers. Today, he has his own outpatient clinic  for integrative oncology  Mainz. His main focus is supporting patients with cancer and their families in all aspects of care: prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, complementary medicine and palliative care in the field of cancer medicine. With this book, he wants to teach us how to fight cancer before it starts and the options we have besides conventional treatment.

With contribution by:

Dr. med. Laurence Favet is a highly skilled and experienced medical professional with an impressive background in medical studies, internal medicine, and oncology specialty. Since opening her own private practice in Geneva 13 years ago, Dr. Favet has been providing exceptional care to patients in her outpatient clinic while maintaining close communications with Geneva University Hospital. She is passionate about helping patients understand and cope with their disease and treatment and uses her expertise to provide them with the best care possible. She hopes that some of the images in this book, which have taken shape through discussions with the authors and patients, will also help the reader.