‘Jeopardy!’ Host Alex Trebek on Cancer Fight: Giving Up Would Be a ‘Betrayal’

Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek gave a health update on Wednesday on his battle with stage four pancreatic cancer, saying that he is “happy to report” that he has reached the one-year mark after his diagnosis, which has an 18 percent survival rate. “Now I’d be lying if I said the journey had been an easy one,” he said in a video posted on Twitter. “There were some good days but a lot of not-so-good days. I joked with friends that the cancer won’t kill me, the chemo treatments will.” Trebek, who has hosted the quiz show for 36 seasons since 1984, recently said that his skills “have started to diminish” after he received his cancer diagnosis last year. The host revealed on Wednesday that he has struggled with “sudden massive attacks of great depression that made me wonder if it was really worth fighting on.” He said, however, that giving up would be a “betrayal” to his fans, his “wife and soulmate” Jean, and God: “If we take it just one day at a time with a positive attitude, anything is possible.”