Alex Trebek credits ‘faith in God’ and prayers for his survival after cancer diagnosis

“The one-year survival rate for stage four pancreatic cancer patients is 18%,” Trebek said. “I’m very happy to report I have just reached that marker.”

Trebek told viewers last March he had been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer.

“Now normally, the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I’m going to fight this, and I’m going to keep working, 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,” he said in announcing the news.

Trebek’s diagnosis led to an outpouring of prayers and well wishes around the world.

Trebek announced in August that he had finished chemotherapy and was “back at work” for the 36th Jeopardy! season.

In December, Trebek’s revealed there were “moments of depression” during his treatment.

“I don’t mind getting choked up,” Trebek said. “My oncologist told me one of the symptoms, if you will, of pancreatic cancer is that you get these moments of depression, sadness.”

In his latest health update, Trebek said there were moments he wanted to give up, but he didn’t for fear of letting the people who had prayed for him down.

“There were moments of great pain,” he said. “That made me wonder if it really was worth fighting on. But I brushed that aside, because that would have been a massive betrayal … it would have been a betrayal of other cancer patients … and it certainly would have been a betrayal of my faith in God and the millions of prayers that had been said on my behalf.”

Trebek said he is looking forward to celebrating his yearly survival anniversary with his doctor every year for the rest of his life.

“If I, no, if we — because so many of us are involved in this same situation — if we take it just one day at a time with a positive attitude,” he said, “anything is possible.”