'Jeopardy's Alex Trebek Just Gave An Extremely Positive Update On His Cancer Battle

The Jeopardy host has some positive news regarding his Stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis. As People's latest cover star, Alex Trebek gave a cancer update and revealed that his battle with the disease is going better than he anticipated. So much so, Trebek said his tumors have shrunk greatly to the point that his doctors said the game show host is in "near remission." Trebek is still fighting and has a ways to go, but talk about fantastic news.

As you can probably imagine, Trebek is somewhat speechless about all of this. He said,

"It’s kind of mind-boggling. 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."

After the doctors gave him the uplifting report, Trebek became emotional — in a good way. "But they were tears of joy, not tears of depression," he said.

Trebek still has to go through more rounds of chemotherapy, but he's not giving up anytime soon. He told People the support he's received from fans has gotten him through this very difficult time. He even partially credits all of the love for how well he's currently doing. The 78-year-old told the publication,

"I’ve got a couple million people out there who have expressed their good thoughts, their positive energy directed towards me and their prayers. 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."

On March 6, Trebek announced his cancer diagnosis. At the time of his announcement, he remained positive. In a video, which you can watch above, Trebek told fans directly, "Normally, the prognosis for this is not very encouraging. But I'm going to fight this. And I'm going to keep working." He also added, "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." (According to the American Cancer Society, the five-year survival rate for Stage 4 pancreatic cancer is only 3%. This percentage is based on people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer between 2008 and 2014.)

Trebek tried to keep his video message somewhat lighthearted by stating,

"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."

Well, it certainly seems like the well-wishes Trebek's gained from family, friends, and fans has helped him immensely. It also sounds like he's remaining positive and refusing to let the cancer win. Here's hoping Trebek continues receiving good reports from doctors. Until then, he would probably appreciate if fans were to send him even more messages. The kind thoughts seem to be really helping him through the fight of his life.