Fifteen months into a battle with stage IV pancreatic cancer, Quiet Riot drummer Frankie Banali is “doing great” following his 21st round of chemotherapy, notes guitarist Alex Grossi.

It’s been a tough year for esteemed drummer Frankie Banali of the heavy metal collective Quiet Riot. Banali is facing a tough battle against stage IV pancreatic cancer, which has left him noting that fans “wouldn’t recognise” him as he continues chemotherapy.

In a recent interview with Combat Radio, Quiet Riot guitarist Alex Grossi commented on the current battle his bandmate is undergoing, stating that he’s “fighting the good fight with cancer.”

Yesterday marked Banali’s 21st round of chemotherapy, where Grossi reveals that the incredibly talented drummer is “hanging in there.”

“He’s actually doing great. He looks great. He’s out fighting the good fight. We obviously haven’t been playing [due to the coronavirus pandemic] — no one has — so I think, in a roundabout way, it’s been kind of good ’cause he can really rest up and get a handle on this thing.”

Diagnosed in April of 2019, and openly talking about it since October of 2019, Banali has since sadly stated that “cancer will be the death of me,” as the prognosis for stage IV pancreatic cancer is quite grim.

“I’m still doing the chemotherapy. I switched to a different chemotherapy a few months ago. And the side effects on this one are pretty brutal, and they pretty much last into the next round of chemo. So you kind of don’t get a break for about three weeks, and then you get about maybe 10 days off, and then the cycle starts again. But it’s part of what I’m doing,” he recently revealed in an interview with SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk.

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As Frankie Banali continues his fight, a GoFundMe has been erected to help the family with the intense medical bills that a cancerous diagnosis brings.

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