‘I’d be lying if I said the journey had been an easy one’: Alex Trebek marks cancer anniversary

Longtime “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek released a video statement on the game show’s official YouTube page Wednesday, thanking fans for their support and offering words of inspiration to his fellow cancer patients.

Trebek, 79, was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer in March 2019. He’s spent the last year fighting a very public battle with the disease.

In January, Trebek spoke with ABC’s Michael Strahan about his battle with cancer,

“Because of the cancer diagnosis, it’s no longer an open-ended life, it’s a closed-ended life because of the terrible statistics, survival rates for pancreatic cancer.”

The American Cancer Society reports pancreatic cancer is responsible for about 7% of all cancer deaths. It’s more common in men than in women. Stage IV, which Trebek was diagnosed with, has the lowest survival statistics.

“The one-year survival rate for stage IV pancreatic cancer patients is 18%. I’m very happy to report I’ve just reached that marker.”

Stage IV means the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, like the liver, lungs or bones. It can be any size. It can also have spread to the lymph nodes.

Trebek’s doctors began an aggressive course of treatment. The worst, Trebek said, has been the chemotherapy.

“There were some good days, but a lot of not so good days,” Trebek said in the video. "I joked with friends that the cancer won’t kill me, the chemo treatments will. There were moments of great pain. Days when certain bodily functions no longer functioned.”

Trebek spoke honestly about the toll fighting the disease has taken on his mental health, describing sudden, massive attacks of great depression.

“(They) made me wonder if it was really worth fighting on,” he confessed to the camera. “But I brushed that aside quickly because that would have been a massive betrayal, a betrayal of my wife and soulmate Jean who has given her all to help me survive."

“If we take it just one day at a time, with a positive attitude, anything is possible.”

—  Alex Trebek, March 2020

Jean , his wife of 29 years, spoke about the toughest parts of caring for her husband earlier this year.

“When I see him in pain and I can’t help him. And when he doesn’t eat right. When he has too much soda.”

Trebek has been very open about what he described as the ‘humbling’ support of fans during this battle. When fighting his depression, he said he regularly thought of them.

"It would have been a betrayal of other cancer patients who have looked to me as an inspiration of sorts as the value of living and hope. And it certainly would have been a betrayal of my faith in God and the millions of prayers that have been said on my behalf.”

As for the future, Trebek confirmed he thinks about it, and tries to keep an optimistic approach.

“You know my oncologist tried to cheer me up the other day. He said, 'Alex, you know even though the two-year survival rate is only 7 percent, he was certain that one year from now the two of us would be sitting in his office celebrating my second anniversary of survival. And you know something? If I, no, if we, because so many of us are involved in this same situation, if we take it just one day at a time, with a positive attitude, anything is possible."

The video ends with a promise to his fans and the “Jeopardy!” family.

“I’ll keep you posted.”

Watch “Jeopardy!" weeknights at 7 p.m. on WFTV Channel 9.

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