Alex Trebek health update: ‘Jeopardy!’ host says he’s ‘doing well,’ cancer treatments ‘paying off’

Alex Trebek has some positive health updates for his fans.

In a video shared to YouTube Thursday, Trebek appeared sporting a new goatee to share some Jeopardy! firsts and keep fans in the know about his pancreatic cancer diagnosis.

“I’m doing well,” the iconic TV host said. “I’ve been continuing my treatment and it is paying off. Though it does fatigue me a great deal, my numbers are good. I’m feeling great. In fact, during the break from the studio, I even wrote a book that will be coming out July 21.”

Trebek first announced news of his book, ”The Answer Is …Reflections on My Life,” in April, which is scheduled for release a day before his 80th birthday.

The New York Times published an interview with Trebek Friday, where the 79-year-old stated that if his current course of cancer treatment fails, he plans to stop treatment.

“Yesterday morning my wife came to me and said, ‘How are you feeling?’ And I said, ‘I feel like I want to die.’ It was that bad,” he told the outlet. “There comes a time where you have to make a decision as to whether you want to continue with such a low quality of life, or whether you want to just ease yourself into the next level. It doesn’t bother me in the least.”

Trebek announced to the world in March 2019, that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Throughout his treatment he’s continued to host “Jeopardy!” and provide fans with health updates along the way.

“I’d be lying if I said the journey had been an easy one,” he said in March. “There were some good days, but a lot of not-so-good days. I joked with friends that the cancer won’t kill me, the chemo treatments will. There were moments of great pain, days when certain bodily functions no longer functioned and sudden, massive attacks of great depression that made me wonder if it really was worth fighting on.”

The TV host also shared that “Jeopardy!,” which has suspended production due to the coronavirus pandemic, will open their “vaults” and begin airing some momentous past episodes of the game show starting July 20.

“I’m here at home recording show openings for some very special ‘Jeopardy!’ episodes that will be coming up,” Trebek said Thursday. “For the first time ever, we are going to open the ‘Jeopardy!’ vaults and take another look at some of our favorite episodes, including the very first ‘Jeopardy!’ show I ever hosted, mustache and all.”

The game show’s producers looked over 8,000 episodes and chose 20 they thought were the most compelling in the show’s 36-year history, according to a release issued by “Jeopardy!”