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Source: Nicky Nelson/WENN.com / WENN

(Gray News) – Alex Trebek, the iconic host of “Jeopardy!” announced Wednesday he has stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

He said in a video announcement posted to YouTube that “I’m going to fight this” and “I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease.”

According to the Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate of the major cancers with 91 percent of patients dying within five years of a diagnosis. It is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths.

“Normally, the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I’m going to fight this, and I’m going to keep working,” Trebek said in his video address. “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.”

“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,” he said.

In October he renewed his “Jeopardy!” contract through 2022. The 78-year-old underwent brain surgery to address blood clots in December 2017, but made a swift return just a month later.

Trebek has been the face of the trivia game show since 1984, helping turn it into a beloved program millions of people play along with nightly.

He has been perhaps the gold standard in game show hosting for more than three decades. He’s been honored with an array of awards – five Daytime Emmy awards as Outstanding Game Show Host and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences among them – for his studious but affable presentation of the show, always asking contestants to provide answers in the form of a question.

“I think what makes ‘Jeopardy!’ special is that, among all the quiz and game shows out there, ours tends to reward and encourage learning,” he has said.

In 2014, Trebek set the Guinness World Record for most game show episodes hosted, and according to his profile on the “Jeopardy!” website has by now hosted nearly 8,000 episodes. He has been elected to both the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame and the National Association of Broadcasters Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

Even as he solidified his future with the show in the fall, he has spoken publicly on occasion in the last year about what direction “Jeopardy!” may go in after him. Before he extended his contract, he told TMZ last summer he could consider retiring in 2020 and offered up two people, CNN analyst Laura Coates and Los Angeles Kings broadcaster Alex Faust, who he thought could potentially replace him.

In February he jokingly added another candidate.

“It’s probably going to be a woman, somebody younger, somebody bright, somebody personable, somebody with a great sense of humor,” he said at an appearance in New York. “So I nominated Betty White.”

 

READ MORE: Cleveland19.com

Article Courtesy of WOIO Cleveland 19 News

First Picture Courtesy of Santiago Felipe and Getty Images

Second Picture Courtesy of Nicky Nelson and WENN

Video Courtesy of YouTube and WOIO Cleveland 19 News

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