Alex Trebek's Cancer Is 'Near Remission'
Trebek's current outcome could offer a source of hope for patients with pancreatic cancer, who typically have poor prognoses.
Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek said that he is in “near remission,” during an interview with PEOPLE Magazine.
This is coming only months after the 78-year-old announced that he was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer.
“It’s kind of mind-boggling,” Trebek said to PEOPLE. “The doctors said they hadn’t seen this kind of positive result in their memory… some of the tumors have already shrunk by more than 50%.”
Trebek’s current outcome could offer a source of hope for patients with pancreatic cancer, who typically have poor prognoses. According to the American Cancer Society, the 5-year relative survival rate for pancreatic cancer is about 50%-and that number drops to about 3% for distant (stage IV) disease.
However, Trebek’s fight against the disease was not an easy one, and it is still ongoing. Earlier this month, he opened up about his experience with treatment so far.
“I was on the floor writhing in pain. It went from a 3 to an 11,” he said in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning. “And it happened 3 or 4 times a day while we were taping. So, that was a little rough on me.”
The game show host still has several more rounds of chemotherapy ahead of him, and he will rely on his medical team and the well wishes of fans to help get him through.
“I’ve got a couple million people out there who have expressed their good thoughts, their positive energy directed toward me and their prayers,” he said to PEOPLE. “I told the doctors, ‘this has to be more than just chemo,’ and they agreed it could very well be an important part of this.”
