Alex Trebek says his battle with cancer is going better than he ever expected it would, as the “Jeopardy!” host’s doctors tell him he’s now “near remission.”
“It’s kind of mind-boggling,” Trebek said in a new People cover story interview, published online Wednesday.
The longtime game show host was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, which has a 9% survival rate, back in March. Trebek tells People that, despite the odds, he’s been responding well to chemotherapy treatment.
“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%,” he told People.
Though the “Jeopardy!” host still has work ahead of him in his fight against pancreatic cancer, as he says he’ll need to go through several more rounds of chemo if he hopes to go into full remission, he credits some of his current progress to the support he’s received from fans since revealing his diagnosis with the the world.
“I’ve got a couple million people out there who have expressed their good thoughts, their positive energy directed towards me and their prayers,” he told People. “I told the doctors, this has to be more than just the chemo, and they agreed it could very well be an important part of this.”
Trebek revealed in March that he’d been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, leading to his future as the host of “Jeopardy!” to become the subject of some speculation. But last month, the host promised to return for the new season in the fall.
“I’ve got a lot of love out there headed in my direction and a lot of prayer, and I will never ever minimize the value of that,” Trebek told People.