Dennis Pepa, the Daly City musician who co-founded thrash metal pioneers Death Angel in 1982, has revealed he is battling stage 4 duodenal cancer and is racing to raise $150,000 to pay for experimental treatment in Mexico. Pepa was diagnosed with the rare gastrointestinal disease in February 2026, not long after losing a job he had held for nearly 20 years.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Pepa launched a GoFundMe campaign to cover medical treatment, travel, housing and everyday expenses for himself and his family. As of Wednesday, the campaign had raised nearly $28,000 from around 390 donations, according to Blunt Magazine. Pepa is seeking help paying for treatment and supporting his family, per the Chronicle's reporting, and says he wants to watch his sons Maddox, 22, and Roman, 19, grow and build lives of their own. He has also said he wants to marry his fiancée, Gemalyn.
A $150,000 Target With a Mexico Clinic in the Mix
Pepa is seeking treatment at the Immunocine Cancer Center in Mexico, which uses dendritic cell immunotherapy, though the Chronicle notes he has not finalized his treatment plans. The fundraiser is meant to help cover roughly six weeks of accommodation connected to that treatment, along with groceries, household bills and other family expenses. GoFundMe listings cite public health directory estimates from Heal Navigator putting the baseline cost of Immunocine's dendritic cell immunotherapy at $120,000, which accounts for the bulk of the $150,000 target before travel and lodging costs are added in.
The treatment Pepa is pursuing sits outside the mainstream of U.S. cancer care. Dendritic-cell vaccines are designed to stimulate immune responses against cancer cells, but according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, only one such vaccine has received FDA approval in the United States, Blunt Magazine reports. Small-intestine cancers account for fewer than 1% of all cancer diagnoses and under 10% of digestive tract cancers, with an estimated North American incidence rate of 3.0 to 3.7 cases per million people, according to MedicalNewsToday. The duodenum is the uppermost section of the small intestine, connecting it to the stomach.
From Daly City Teenagers to Grammy Nominees
Death Angel formed in Daly City in 1982, with Pepa on bass and vocals alongside Rob Cavestany, Gus Pepa and Andy Galeon, according to the Chronicle. The band, often described as a Filipino American thrash-metal group, released The Ultra-Violence in 1987, Frolic Through the Park in 1988 and Act III in 1990 before breaking up the following year. During the band's earliest years, from 1982 to 1984 and before Mark Osegueda joined as lead singer, Pepa handled lead vocals in addition to bass duties, Blunt Magazine notes.
Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett produced Death Angel's landmark 1986 demo tape Kill As One, recorded at Jack London Studios when the band members were still teenagers, as reported by Decibel Magazine. After the band's 1991 breakup, Pepa played bass in the alternative metal spin-off group The Organization from 1991 to 1995 alongside former Death Angel bandmates, who released two full-length albums before disbanding in the mid-1990s, per Wikipedia. Death Angel reunited in 2001, and Pepa remained with the group through 2008. When he announced his departure that October, he said he wanted to explore musical opportunities beyond heavy metal while describing his bandmates as family, according to Blabbermouth.
Bandmates Rally as Fundraiser Spreads
Death Angel went on to earn its first Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance in 2020 for Humanicide, the title track from the band's ninth studio album, the Chronicle reports. That same year, drummer Will Carroll became critically ill with COVID-19 and spent nearly two weeks in a medically induced coma at a San Francisco hospital before recovering. The 1980s thrash-metal scene included the Big Four — Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax — as well as Bay Area acts such as Death Angel, Testament, Exodus and Overkill.
Death Angel has shared Pepa's fundraiser and urged fans to help, writing: “Please help our brother, friend, cousin, and founding member of Death Angel, Dennis Pepa, in his fight against cancer,” per the Chronicle. The band says Pepa needs to reach treatment, cover six weeks of accommodation and support his family back home.
