'The Help of Your Prayers': Alex Trebek Beating Cancer, Tumors Shrink Dramatically
Just three months after announcing his stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis, Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek has some good news to share about his cancer battle. He reports some of his tumors have shrunk in half.
In an interview with People Magazine, Trebek, 78, said his doctors told him he's in "near remission." They also said that they were shocked at how well the cancer is responding to chemotherapy.
"It's kind of mind-boggling," Trebek told the magazine. "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 percent."
The game show host announced his diagnosis on video in March and said he would continue to do his Jeopardy! job. He "vowed to fight the disease "with the love of support of my family and friends, and with the help of your prayers … ."
As CBN News reported, earlier this month, Trebek revealed to ABC's "Good Morning America" host Robin Roberts, he also has been struggling with depression during his treatment for cancer which reportedly has a nine percent survival rate.
"My oncologist tells me I'm doing well even though I don't always feel it. I've had kidney stones, I've had ruptured discs, so I'm used to dealing with pain," he said. "What I'm not used to dealing with (is) the surges that come on suddenly of deep, deep sadness and it brings tears to my eye. I've discovered in this whole episode, ladies and gentlemen, that I'm a bit of a wuss."
"The cancer indicators, those are coming down," he noted. "I've got another chemo next week and we'll do a review and see where things stand. Chemo affects people in different ways and people have to understand that, and that there's nothing wrong with saying, 'Hey, I'm really depressed today and I don't know why.'"
Trebek admitted to People that he cried when he heard the good news about his cancer. And he thinks the reason he's doing so well with his chemo is the well wishes from his fans and friends around the world.
"I've got a couple of million people out there who have expressed their good thoughts, their positive energy directed towards me and their prayers," he said. "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."
"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," he added.
Although the prognosis from his doctors is good, Trebek said he still has several rounds of chemotherapy left before he's in complete remission.
