"Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek announces he has stage 4 pancreatic cancer

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald-CNN

"Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek is hoping for a victory as he wages a battle against cancer.

The longtime game show host on Wednesday announced he's been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in a video posted to the show's YouTube account.

"Now, normally, the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I'm going to fight this. And I'm going to keep working and with the love and support of my family and friends -- and with the help of your prayers also -- I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease," he said.

Trebek also joked: "Truth told, I have to because under the terms of my contract, I have to host 'Jeopardy' for three more years. So help me. Keep the faith, and we'll win. We'll get it done."

This story is developing and will be updated.

Read more: https://www.omaha.com/news/national/jeopardy-host-alex-trebek-announces-he-has-stage-pancreatic-cancer/article_2a2b5b1f-1afd-5a7d-b0ed-80da33a37f31.html

[hlthe2b]

1. I don't like his politics, but I'd not wish this on anyone.

I wish him the best possible treatment and outcome.

[JI7]

7. yes, can't imagine the show without him

[PJMcK]

13. Really?

The show existed for years before he hosted it.

Art Fleming was the host way before Trebek. Mr. Fleming was far more of a gentleman than Mr. Know-It-All Trebek.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeopardy!

The brilliant Merv Griffin produced the show, along with other programs.

Jeopardy! will continue.

[Raine]

18. I remember Art Fleming as host

I would watch when I was sick and home from school. Art Fleming will always be THE Jeopardy host for me but it was his choice to not do the show when it moved from New York to Los Angeles. Fleming was a real classy guy but I like Trebek too, it took a while for me to warm to him though.

[whopis01]

21. Sure but it has been Trebek for 35 years.

That is by far the majority of the years the show has been on. And the entirety of the 3rd incarnation of the show.

[rpannier]

11. For some reason game show hosts seem to skew conservative

I agree with you, I hope he gets the best outcome

[YOHABLO]

23. Hmm ''his politics''? do tell.

[hlthe2b]

31. Like most game show hosts, Trebek is a conservative.

I don't get the impression he's necessarily a Trumpist, but more an old school conservative and seemingly a lot less hard-core than Chuck Woolery or Pat Sajak

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/09/16/why-do-game-show-hosts-lean-republican/?utm_term=.0cd89d824385

[bitterross]

2. Wow, terribly sad to hear this.

That's a really bad one.

[Beacool]

3. I'm so sorry to hear that.

I wish him the best.

[CTyankee]

4. OMG, we watch it every week night right after dinner. We love the show.

I wonder how long he has known this. He is so well composed on his show. We admire him.

[cstanleytech]

8. "I wonder how long he has known this." Probably not to long if its stage 4 as from what I have read

its a difficult cancer to detect in its early stages.

[Drahthaardogs]

9. And almost always fatal.

It's a bad cancer to have

[Haggis for Breakfast]

12. Sadly, because pancreatic problems mimic other illnesses,

you can have pancreatic cancer for 10-15 years before you get that diagnosis. And by then, it's too late. The fatality rate is 98%.
Miss Aretha was able to survive for so long (10 years) because her diagnosis was made very early on, and she totally restructured everything in her life to accommodate the illness.

[BigmanPigman]

15. RBG recovered from it but I don't know what stage it was

or when it was detected. I know three people who died from it after only a being diagnosed with it a few months earlier.

[shanny]

27. Stage 1--and it was found by a routine scan/follow-up

for a different form of cancer from some years before.

[CTyankee]

14. Why is that?

[cstanleytech]

22. No idea but if I had to guess its probably because of where it is located there are

a number of organs in front of it as well as severe symptoms probably do not manifest until the cancer is well advanced.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

28. It often feels like a sore back.

That was the case for my father in law. What sent him to the hospital was the jaundice from the metastasis to his liver. He was gone in six weeks from there. Brutal.

[George II]

5. Sad news. Unfortunately this is tough to diagnose until it's long down the road. Hope he kicks it!

[Gothmog]

6. I will be praying for a full recovery for Alex

[LisaM]

10. I'm sorry I poked so much fun at his team tournament this week.

If I'd known, I'd have backed off. I wish him the best and hope he is the statistical anomaly.

He probably did co-ordinate the timing of the announcement so as not to distract from the tourney.

[pdsimdars]

16. What I don't get is how could it have gotten so far without earlier diagnosis?

[Haggis for Breakfast]

17. Because pancreatic disorders mimic so many other illnesses.

Endocrinologists will tell you that there are so many other types of conditions that are far more common (and therefore expected) than pancreatic dysfunction, and tracking those down takes it own time. It is really a process of elimination. And the time expended is ruling out all other problems leaves little time for treatment if it is eventually found to be pancreatic issues.

[localroger]

19. Also, conventional surgical treatment is impossible

You can't do surgery on the pancreas because it creates digestive enzymes, and when you make any kind of incision those leak out and start digesting all the stuff they're normally isolated from by the internal structure of the pancreas. So surgical reduction of the cancer mass is impossible; all you can do is radiation and chemo, and you can't do radiation if the mass is too large because you'll kill too much of the non-cancerous pancreatic tissue too.

Pancreatic cancer is what got Randy "the last lecture" Pausch. In the Last Lecture video he looks healthy as a horse and does pushups -- but he'd seen the scans and informed himself as to what they mean. He knew, and six months after the lecture he was dead.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

24. I have his book.

It was inspirational. His thoughts on life and how much time and energy we waste on things that do not matter in the long run really opened my eyes. I made changes in my life after reading his book.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

25. It depends on where the cancer is.

My partner had the Steve Jobs kind - pnancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (PNET). They snipped the tail of his pancreas off without too much trouble. They took the spleen because they share a blood vessel. Threw in the gallbladder as part of the deal.

PNETs are a very survivable type of cancer if treated with surgery. Not so much with radiation and chemo. Jobs would be alive if he followed his doctor’s recommendation.

Edit to add: reading up on RBG’s cancer, it’s not apparent which cancer she had. The adenocarcinoma (the really bad one) or the islet cell (PNET) not so bad one. Apparently they never disclosed her type. It sure sounds like she had a PNET. The surgery sounds a lot like my partner’s. Fortunately they both had the lesion at the tail so they didn’t need the more radical Whipple Proceedure.

[pdsimdars]

32. Thanks for the explaination

[Ace Rothstein]

34. With PC, unfortunately, most people are asymptomatic until the disease has progressed.

Over half of the people diagnosed with PC are stage 4 at time of diagnosis.

[Raine]

20. He has a tough fight ahead of him

I wish him all the best..

[stonecutter357]

26. thoughts and prayers.

[Xolodno]

29. It was nice watching him on TV.

...hope he fulfills anything he wanted that he hasn't accomplished.

[area51]

30. If he goes back to his native Canada,

I'd image they'll treat him for free instead of emptying his bank account like here in the states.

[akraven]

33. I so hate this. My fave Jeopardy host ever. Damn.

Hopefully the new treatments will work. Hang in there, Alex, please?

[ADX]

35. I'll never understand...

...why a person's politics matters to some people when that person is facing a life-and-death struggle against something as insidious as cancer.

Best wishes, Mr. Trebek; stay strong...