“Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek has just revealed that during the taping of the show’s “Greatest of All Time” tournament, which has been airing since Jan. 7, he was coping with side effects from chemotherapy and medications — but that new tests would let him know “where things stand."
While Trebek, who has stage 4 pancreatic cancer, says he can "still deliver clues at a rapid pace," according to The Hollywood Reporter, he shared that during the tournament he wasn't having his best week: "I seemed a little slower in the ad-libbed portion.”
Read MoreI think there were "No Photos" signs but my wife smuggled out this look at today's Jeopardy panel at #tca. Alex utterly charmed the world's most jaded audience, TV critics, for 40 minutes. pic.twitter.com/4lsQ7Vxb65
Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) January 8, 2020
Speaking to the press at at the 2020 Television Critics Association winter tour on Wednesday on a panel about the tournament, he also noted that his doctors have been adjusting his treatment plan. "They got me off one of my chemo drugs, which was killing me.” Now, he reports, "I have good days and bad days.”
Dr. William Breitbart, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Services at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, on how feeling vulnerable can accompany a cancer diagnosis.
Trebek also noted that he had a cold. “My resistance is lower than most of you because of the treatments I’ve been having chemotherapy and … the cold that seems to be going around,” he said. “This is the second time I’ve had it in the past month and a half."
RELATED: Enormous Love for Brave Alex Trebek as “Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time" Tournament Begins
The tournament’s first night attracted some 14 million live viewers, according to THR, as their affection for Trebek, who's hosted the game show since 1984, has grown even more fervent since he announced his stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis last year.
Our #JeopardyGOAT legends are looking dapper on the #TCA20 blue carpet! pic.twitter.com/JnR8eNn6tk
ABC (@ABCNetwork) January 9, 2020
No Plans to Retire
Although he's imagined how he might handle his final show, Trebek has no plans to retire right now.
“Thinking about retiring and retiring are two different things,” Trebek told reporters. “We’ll see what happens. As long as I feel my skills have not diminished too much, and as long as I’m enjoying spending time with people like these three [I’ll keep working].”
Alex Trebek’s Cancer Journey
Trebek announced in March that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which is an incredibly difficult disease to treat. What's more, the host was diagnosed at stage 4. However, he's kept an optimistic attitude throughout his months-long cancer journey. He was initially treated with chemotherapy and had responded quite well announcing in May that some of his tumors had shrunk a significant amount, and the results were "mind-boggling." But in September, Trebek announced a reversal of those initial positive results.
In an interview with “Good Morning America,” Trebek said that he would need another round of chemotherapy after recent tests revealed "sky-high" numbers, and he experienced really rapid weight loss. Trebek responded so well to his first round of chemotherapy that his doctors took him off his regiment, hoping to start immunotherapy shortly thereafter so Trebek's own immune system could be rallied to begin killing off cancer cells. However, Trebek revealed that immunotherapy didn't do anything for his disease.
Recognizing Symptoms Leads to Earlier Diagnosis
One significant impact of the “Jeopardy!” host's remarkable openness about his disease is known as The Trebek Effect, which has triggered an unprecedented level of awareness of pancreatic cancer and the warning signs that can help speed a diagnosis. In Trebek's PSA for the World Pancreatic Coalition, he acknowledged the low survival rate for pancreatic cancer, "In nearly every country, pancreatic cancer is the only major cancer with a five year survival rate in the single digits."
The best way to combat the disease, Trebek said, is by letting people know it exists and needs attention. "And that's why I've joined forces with the World Pancreatic Cancer Coalition, to help raise global awareness of the risks and symptoms of pancreatic cancer."
Trebek got personal when he identified the symptoms he wished he'd recognized before he was diagnosed with his disease, "I wish I had known sooner that the persistent stomach pain I experienced before my diagnosis was a symptom of pancreatic cancer." He went on to list more symptoms so that viewers could be better informed, "Other common symptoms can include mid back pain, unexplained weight loss, new onset diabetes and the yellowing of the skin or eyes."
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