health with dr. scott aukerman
jeopardy host Alex Trebek shocked
everybody yesterday and he'd been
announced when he announced he's been
diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer
he broke the news to jeopardy fans in a
video saying he wanted to keep his long
time policy of being open and
transparent and with the love and
support of my family and friends and
with the help of York 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
thank you I got to tell you I saw that
yesterday and I was shocked I had a
watch it three times I mean this is a
guy that so many of us grew up with mhm
and we know it's a reality it happens to
50,000 Americans but when it happens to
somebody who's in the spotlight like
that it gives you pause for thought
let's talk about the diagnosis with dr.
Scott Ackerman the prognosis is not good
it's not encouraging no you know as you
said over 50,000 people are diagnosed
every year with pancreatic cancer and
sadly most of them dot are dead within
five years most of them die of their
pancreatic cancer I think the numbers
run ninety-one percent so the problem is
is a very devastating disease but with
Stage four it could be four to six
months correct and so the reason that so
such a high percentage of patients with
pancreatic cancer are a die of their
pancreatic cancer is because it's
frequently not diagnosed until it's in a
later stage so Stage four unfortunately
is very common stage for it to be
diagnosed and other cancers we have all
sorts of great screening techniques
breast cancer we've made lots of
advances with mammography prostate
cancer we've made lots of advances and
were able to diagnose those cancers in a
very early stage when it's more curable
but with pancreatic cancer it's silent
it grows very slowly in the pancreas and
before and and when it's at the point
where you have some symptoms it's
usually already in a very advanced stage
and stage four so how do you detect it
what are the symptoms so against
there aren't very many symptoms of
pancreatic cancer until it becomes large
and the symptoms are an easy queasy
feeling in the abdomen back pain nausea
in a more advanced stage when the tumor
starts blocking some of the ducts that
leave the liver you can become jaundiced
which means your skin is yellow those
are those are the sort of symptoms and
stage four means that it's spread the
cancer has spread to other areas of the
body right so all the Chi all cancers we
look at we try to stage them and the
reason we stage them is so that we can
better understand the appropriate way to
treat the cancer and stay in pancreatic
cancer stage four means that the tumor
has spread to other parts of the body
now let me ask you about his mental
state he unequivocally said I'm going to
beat this I have to I got three more
years when my contract you know we kind
of chuckled at that but your mental
state goes a long way in fighting
debilitating illness
oh absolutely watching a video was very
you know very inspiring he's very
positive about things he's going to
continue to work and he wants to fight
this he's asking for everyone's thoughts
and prayers as he moves forward and
that's a wonderful mental state and I
personally I find this a lot with my
patients had patients that have a good
support system and have a good attitude
and are strong-willed really do better
than those that don't and just because
I'm saying that Stage four pancreatic
cancer is very devastating and that many
people die of it doesn't mean there
isn't hope there's lots of good
treatments and patients can have their
life's extended with good quality of
life our newer treatments are newer
chemo therapeutic treatments are
targeted immune therapies are targeted
radiation like using proton radiation on
these tumors is able to treat patients
in a simple way in a way that has let
that has very little side effects and
can improve and will improve overall
life and you know enhance length of time
but also enhance quality of life and
that's really what it's about I hope
that years from now we hear the jeopardy
music and the question is he was the
Jeopardy host who beat the odds lived
longer than the five years and the
answer is who is Alex Trebek
if you missed any of this information
you can revisit this interview on news
for Jax com
just look under the health section and
Alex Trebek if anybody can do it I know
people have faith that you can