“30 Years Of Friendship:”How Vanna White of “Wheel of Fortune” Is Praying For “Jeopardy” Legend Alex Trebek During His Cancer Journey

She said that his inner strength is carry is carrying him through. "He's hanging in there," she continued. "He's a strong man and he has got such a strong will to conquer this. [He's] very good, very good. He's funny, he keeps himself entertained and he entertains others with his humor."

This comes after Trebek revealed the hopeful news that his Stage 4 pancreatic cancer may be treatable with immunotherapy, if chemotherapy gets rid of some of the cancer first.

"I had my last chemo end of last week, and I go in for a PET scan day after tomorrow, and then we'll have a better idea of where things stand," Trebek told The National, which is part of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. "If we've managed to get rid of some of the tumors, then it'll be great, and then I can go to immunotherapy, because they've discovered that my cancer is a specific mutation that responds well to certain kinds of immunotherapy."

Immunotherapy drugs work by activating the body's own immune system to fight the cancer.

Doctors haven’t been all that successful with immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer. “Immune therapy alone to treat pancreatic cancer [pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma-the most common kind] has not had very encouraging results,” Dr. Heather Yeo, Assistant Professor of Surgery and Healthcare Policy and Research at Weill Cornell Medical College, and assistant attending surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, tells SurvivorNet.

But there is one immunotherapy drug for pancreatic cancer on the market. “There is one FDA approved immune therapy drug called Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) which is a humanized antibody, and which is being used in patients with certain mutations and unresectable pancreatic cancer (pancreatic cancer that can’t be removed surgically),” Dr. Yeo says.

Unresectable tumors are tumors that can’t be removed surgically, and in order for a drug to be a “humanized antibody,” it has to be a protein taken from a non-human species, that has been modified to be more similar to a human protein. Doctors can use the modified protein to attack certain types of cancer.

In addition, there is another way to gain access to immunotherapy options that may not be on the market yet. “Many different immunotherapies are being tested in clinical trials,” says Dr. Yeo, “trying to find out if they work. These include vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and checkpoint inhibitors. Some immune therapies are given to Stage 4 patients who have not responded to standard chemotherapy alone, usually on trial.”

And for pancreatic cancer patients, clinical trials are a really good option. “Pancreatic cancer patients on clinical trials are offered cutting edge therapy,” says Dr. Yeo. “Since standard chemotherapy does not work very well, if patients have the opportunity to be on a clinical trial they should do it.  Patients should ask their medical oncologists what trials they may be eligible for. They should ask about the particular risk and potential benefits of the treatment that they are being offered.”

Dr. Yeo also emphasized that Immunotherapy drugs aren’t the first line of defense. “Immunotherapy is not a standard part of cancer treatment currently.  Current treatment options for pancreatic cancer include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.  Because current immunotherapies have not been shown to be very effective in pancreatic cancer, standard options or a clinical trial should be pursued.”

And that they aren’t risk-free. “Like any drug, immune therapies have risks that go along with them. Some of these side effects can include fever, rash, weakness, and pancreatitis. Immune therapies often help your body's immune system work better, but your immune system can sometimes attack your own cells so drugs that affect the immune system need to be studied carefully.”

As for Alex Trebek, he describes the reason for the positive outlook he has brought to the entire cancer process. "You've got a choice. You can be pessimistic, or you can be optimistic, and it's a lot better to be optimistic because you stand a much better chance of helping to cure yourself."

He also talks about the depression he faced during other illnesses he's had in the past. "Last year, as I mentioned at the Emmy Awards show, I had brain surgery for two fairly large blood clots on my brain that were life threatening and they had compressed the brain down quite a bit. And that was frightening. That provided me with a certain amount of depression because I didn't know what it was."

But with cancer, he knows he's not in it alone. "But this for some reason is hey, so many people get cancer. I'm not alone out there. And I want them to feel that they're not alone, that they have somebody who can speak out in public on their behalf and raise their hopes because that's so important."

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