"Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek, 79, celebrated making it past the one-year mark with pancreatic cancer, fighting through the lows of treatments and the highs of living.
"The one-year survival rate for stage 4 pancreatic cancer patients is 18%," Trebek said in a video posted on YouTube. "I'm very happy to report I've just reached that marker."
Trebek has kept good spirits, and serving as the "Jeopardy!" host, proving to be an "inspiration" to other cancer patients.
"I'd joke with friends, 'The cancer won't kill me; the chemo treatments will,'" he said. "There were moments of great pain, days where certain bodily functions no longer functioned and sudden, massive attacks of great depression that made me wonder if it was really worth fighting on."
Trebek added he is soldiering through for his family, in particular his wife, fearing it would be a "betrayal" if he were to stop fighting.
He added the two-year survival rate is just 7%, but his oncologist told him recently they will be talking about the three-year rate after another milestone.
"If we take it just one day at a time with a positive attitude, anything is possible," Trebek said. "I'll keep you posted."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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