It was just three months ago that Alex Trebek announced he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer, a diagnosis which is extremely grim.
“I’m gonna fight this. And I’m gonna keep working,” Trebek said at the time in an emotional video posted to Twitter “With the loving 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.”
In the following months, social media rallied around Trebek, engulfing him with love and well-wishes.
Stage 4 pancreatic cancer only has an overall survival rate of 9 percent, but Trebek seems to be beating the odds. According to People Magazine on Wednesday, it was announced that Trebek was in “near remission.”
According to the exclusive People interview:
"It’s kind of mind-boggling,” the 78-year-old says, in PEOPLE’s new cover story. Although the cancer has a 9 percent survival rate, Trebek has been responding very well to chemotherapy. “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."
Thought his chemotherapy treatment, the 78-year-old game show host has maintained a positive outlook.
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.
Trebek ended the interview with some heartwarming words:
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.