Entertainment

Alex Trebek says he's beating his cancer odds

Alex Trebek offered a health update on Wednesday, and it's good news.

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By
Lisa Respers France
, CNN
CNN — Alex Trebek offered a health update on Wednesday, and it's good news.

The official Twitter account of his game show "Jeopardy!" shared of video of Trebek talking about his prognosis a year after his cancer diagnosis.

The one-year survival rate for the stage 4 pancreatic cancer Trebek was diagnosed with is only 18%, Trebek said.

"I'm very happy to report I have just reached that marker," he said.

The host went on to say he'd be "lying if I said the journey had been an easy one."

"There were some good days but a lot of not-so-good days," Trebek said. "I joked with friends that the cancer won't kill me, the chemo treatments will."

He also talked of the pain and depression "that made me wonder if it really was worth fighting on."

But Trebek viewed such thinking as a "betrayal" to his wife and "soul mate," Jean, as well as to the cancer patients who have looked to him for hope and his faith in God, he said.

"You know my oncologist tried to cheer me up the other day," Trebek said. "He said, Alex, even though the two-year survival rate is only 7%, he was certain that one year from now, the two of us would be sitting in his office celebrating my second anniversary of survival."

Trebek ended his update urging people to keep a positive attitude and promising to keep everyone posted.

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