Attitude is everything: Banta continues cancer battle focusing on the positive

Brian Banta talks about his cancer diagnosis during an interview at The Republic in Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019. Mike Wolanin | The Republic

Brian Banta has had more tumors than he can count, along with two close brushes with death while taking a medication that could stop working at any time — but he is still all smiles.

The 58-year-old Columbus resident has been battling a rare hereditary condition called multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1, or MEN1, since he was a senior in 1979 at Edinburgh High School.

MEN1 is caused by a genetic mutation that increases the risk of developing tumors in the endocrine system, the adrenal glands on top of the kidneys and the digestive tract, according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology. An estimated one in 30,000 people has MEN1.

“Right now, I’m covered all over (with tumors),” Banta said. “My pancreas is covered with tumors, my stomach is lined with tumors, my esophagus is lined with tumors, my liver is damaged because of my pancreas. …How many tumors would that be? I don’t know. I’m just covered. There’s so many of them.”

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Over the course of his 40-year battle with cancer, Banta said he has learned that “attitude is everything.”

“I just don’t like nothing to get me down,” Banta said. “I think your attitude is 90% of it, I really do. If you get down, I think your body goes down. I stay positive and don’t let anything get me down. I think your body functions so much better by staying positive.”

Currently, Banta is taking monthly injections of lanreotide, a medication that can slow the growth of certain gastrointestinal and pancreatic endocrine tumors.

So far, the medication, which Banta has been taking since December, has halted the growth of the tumors, Banta said. However, doctors have told him that while the medication could work for 10 or 20 years, it also could stop working at any time.

Banta said he is not experiencing any physical pain, but “just total fatigue” and some occasional dizzy spells.

“It’s like a time bomb,” Banta said. “That keeps me kind of tense. I don’t even want to waste an hour of my day doing something I don’t want to do because I don’t know when (the medication) is going to quit working.”

How it started

Banta’s battle with cancer started when he was 18 years old, when many of his fellow high school seniors were preparing for college and the beginning of their adult lives.

“For a week, mom and dad couldn’t get me up to go to school,” Banta said. “It was my senior year. They couldn’t get me up in the morning, and what it was, come to find out, my sugar level had gotten extremely low. And that’s what got it all started.”

Banta went to the doctor, who referred him to Indiana University Hospital in Indianapolis.

“They ended up doing exploratory surgery, opening me up,” Banta said. “They knew something was wrong. …They knew there had to be something wrong with the pancreas because with my sugar being so low, and doing exploratory surgery, they could see everything. They about gave up on me and they finally found a little spot on my pancreas, which was a tumor. They took a tenth of it off. “

“It was supposed to be a two-week recovery, but I had an infection,” Banta said. “That’s why they about lost me on that one. …It was five-and-a-half months before they could get that infection cured. My whole mid-section was all infected. That was the first time they about lost me.”

After running several tests, doctors confirmed he had MEN1 in 1980, Banta said.

“I said, ‘Wow, I’m not going to live to see retirement,’” he said. “I thought I was going to be dead within a few years. I never planned for it, and now I’m financially paying for it. I didn’t think I was going to live this long. I’m glad I’m living this long, but financially, I didn’t plan for it.”

However, the diagnosis wasn’t entirely surprising, given that his father had the same condition, Banta said.

“They took my dad’s stomach out in 1966 and he lived 30-some years without a stomach. So we assumed I had the same thing. I think because of dad’s condition and what he went through, I just figured I was probably going to get it eventually. Dad’s was found when he was in his 30s. I got mine sooner.”

Between 1980 and 1996, when his sugar started acting up again, Banta had tumors on his pituitary, thyroid and parathyroid glands removed, he said.

Banta said he almost died in 1996 when his spleen ruptured after undergoing a surgical procedure to remove additional tumors from his pancreas.

“That changed my whole attitude,” Banta said. “That changed my attitude about a lot of things. It made me realize that you need to do things you like to do. I don’t mean nothing major, just do simple things you like doing. You never know when you’re not going to be here. Just do the simple things, nothing major.”

Finding hobbies

Banta said he loves hiking and being outdoors and studying and reading about U.S. industrial history and currently is attempting to organize a trip to Bowling Green, Kentucky, to visit the National Corvette Museum.

“To keep your mind off it, you gotta have a hobby,” Banta said. “Mine is industrial history. I can spend my whole life studying industrial history, transportation, railroads, canals and stuff like that.”

Banta said he never married or had any children, but his cousin Vicki Harden has been a big help throughout his decades-long battle.

Banta said he had held several manufacturing jobs over the years and worked as a train conductor for Amtrak and other companies, but doctors recently have told him that he should no longer work full-time due to his medical condition.

Currently, Banta said he lives off of railroad disability and the profits of a business he runs on the side, Banta Advertising, where he sells wall calendars, ink pens and labels. Banta said several of his customers “have been one of the biggest helps” during his battle with cancer, including one who helps him with housing, and several others have helped him financially.

The hardest part about his condition has “knowing that this is going to get me eventually and just not knowing when,” he said.

“Even though I’m fully aware that it could hit me tomorrow and it’d be almost the end of it, I don’t dwell on it,” he said.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About Brian Banta” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Age: 58

City of residence: Columbus

Type of cancer: Pancreas, digestive track, esophagus, pituitary gland, thyroid and parathyroid glands caused by a rare hereditary condition called multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1.

Treatment: Monthly injections of lanreotide

Words of encouragement: "I just don’t like nothing to get me down. I think your attitude is 90% of it, I really do. If you get down, I think your body goes down. I stay positive and don’t let anything get me down. I think your body functions so much better by staying positive."

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The Republic’s annual Colors for a Cure section is inside today’s edition.

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