How the Hell is Alex Trebek Still Alive?

*Knocks on hardwood floor*

*Knocks on hardwood floor*

Between him and RBG, it's safe to say that certain segments of the 1% already have a cure for cancer. It's so obvious at this point. Why should they give us plebians the cure, so that they can lose their funding for cancer research that's putting their kids through college, so that pitiful plebs can continue to "overpopulate" the earth? Pshh.

It happens I knew a woman, well below the 1%, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and lived another 5 years. She was in pretty good shape for most of the time as well. Another one I knew lived only six months.

R3 Nobody told me about it!

Honey it's 2020 progress has been made in cancer care. The "you have two weeks to live" at diagnosis is so 1975.

He's just a liar

Have they started taping the new season yet?

Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh is continuing to spew bullshit on his radio show, on a daily basis. Wasn't he diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer?

[QUOTE] Honey it's 2020 progress has been made in cancer care. The "you have two weeks to live" at diagnosis is so 1975.

If you’re on Medicaid and get diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, believe me, it’s still 1975.

R10 The woman I mentioned in R4 was on medicare and medicaid.

Doctors take extra special care of celebrities & well known politicians. Take it from me, I was an NP for a top surgical group at a NYC medical center. They love bragging about the celebs they worked on. Celebs refer people to the surgeons. Workers at the medical center will refer people to the surgeon. “He worked on (celeb name) so you know he’s good.”

The hospitals also get publicity from celebs. RBG has gone to Sloan Kettering & John’s Hopkins. A surgeon will get out of bed in the middle of the night & go to the hospital & do emergency surgery on a celeb. I had a very serious emergency intestinal bleed once at a small hospital & was left waiting until the surgeon finished his regularly scheduled surgery for the day before he would operate on me. If I was Madonna, who was living down the block from me at the time, he would’ve operated on me right away.

You can bet people want to go to RBG & Alex Trebek’s doctors & to the same hospitals.

Oh, another thing — if you’re rich, the hospital wants your money. I was told on hospital orientation once that I was to suggest donations fir the hospital to any patients who were wealthy. I was told by my chief of surgery once to take extra special care of a very rich woman & to call him any time of the day & night if I had any trouble. If she donated a shitload of money to the hospital, it would be very, very good for him. We were the best funded surgical group in the hospital because if the # of patients we brought in and the amount of money our patients donated to the hospital.

Spell correct put that apostrophe in Johns Hopkins.

My grandfather Harry died within three months of being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It was in the late 1970s so maybe that made the difference. Thankfully, he never knew he was sick which was a miracle when one has PC.

Who the fuck is RBG ?

R15 Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Thank you R16.

So depressing that even health care has come down to this. My father was diagnosed with metastatic s4 lung cancer and given 6 months. He lived 6 months almost to the day. He got progressively worse on chemo and was originally in way better shape than that fat piece of shit Limbaugh. Oddly though, Dad had gold plated health care having worked for a pharmaceutical company and getting a golden parachute that included lifetime healthcare outside of Medicare coverage. So maybe just the extra care applies if there’s a chance you’ll donate a new wing, which he didn’t.

Oh dear r3. You must be a Qanon loonie.

Also learn some biology. Cancer isn't a single thing. It's a broad them that describes things that have different causes and behave in different ways. Some types of cancer we have basically "cured", but again there are many different types.

R18 While fame and fortune can result in better and more hands on treatment. You have to remember that when the doctors give you a time period it isn't set in stone. The two women I mentioned in R4, neither one of them rich and both were on medicare, both were diagnosed with stage IV cancer and given six months. One died almost six months to the day she was diagnosed. The other lived for five years in pretty good shape and health. Cancers and how the individual body responds to them and to treatment can be unpredictable.

in any case, good for him, and i hope he beats it.

Despite your anecdotal story, R20, the fact remains that broke people have a much shorter survival rate than rich people with the same exact cancers.

[quote]Who the fuck is RBG ?

Red, Blue and Green, Rose.

Is remission possible with stage IV cancer, or is it too far gone for that at that point?

Answer is, Fuck you OP and your laminate wooden floor.

r16 Then it should be JRBG, no ?

Some forms of pancreatic cancers are treatable, others not so much. The one Steve Jobs had was of the treatable variety but he refused to have the operation to remove it at first and instead went the holistic treatment route. He did have the operation 9 months after the diagnosis, though, and he ended up living 7 years after that.

I was a mac guy at the time and knew nothing about him being sick for so long, I mean he was already diagnosed back in 2004. I just remember him getting thinner and thinner over the years. I'm not ashamed to say I was lusting after him during his keynotes and I loved a little bulge watching, since he showed a nice one many times.

While having better insurance and better access to excellent care is a factor in cancer survival, the other key component is "genetics" , that is the unique genetic variations you have inherited from your parents. Genetic variations in the immune system plays a major role in why someone may respond or not respond to cancer treatment.

This explains why one person will die from a certain cancer in 6 months and another can live 5 years with the same diagnosis.

Steve Jobs lived for 8 years after his neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer was diagnosed. That's apparently the most treatable kind.

[QUOTE] I'm not ashamed to say I was lusting after him during his keynotes and I loved a little bulge watching, since he showed a nice one many times.

Your lack of shame is unfortunate.

Jobs hastened his death by turning to "peach pit" cures as opposed to medical treatment based on science.

People live longer and longer with terminal cancer now. My father was given the usual "6 months to live, get your affairs in order" with stage 4 lung cancer, then lived another four years thanks to a new med called crizotinib. In the end it wasn't even the cancer that killed him, it was an infection caused by botched surgery. He was well-off but not a 1%er.

R22 Of course they do, but there comes a point where it doesn't matter how much money you have. It is out of your or your doctor's hands.

Some people don’t even know there are different kinds of lung cancer & they are very different from each other, with different prognoses for survival. Small cell carcinoma of the lung, also known as bronchiogenic carcinoma and as oat cell cancer of the lung, is the worst kind of lung cancer to have. It’s rare to live more than 2 years after diagnosis,

I’ve found that drinkers with small cell cancer of the lung die faster than non drinkers.

[quote]Jobs hastened his death by turning to "peach pit" cures as opposed to medical treatment based on science.

Ordering take-out from the Beverly Hills 90210 diner?

I have a relative on a $16,000/60 pills cancer drug who keeps outliving the 'death date' the docs give.

Jobs cancer was caught at a very early stage which is extremely rare. He was having surgery for something else when the doctors found it and considered it about as close to a miracle as you can get as pancreatic cancer is almost never found at an early stage. He thought he knew better than the doctors and did the holistic shit for 9 or 10 months and when he went back it had spread and it was no longer curable.

I think RBG is in the same boat as Charlotte Rae was as far as pancreatic cancer goes. Both of them had a genetic element and had family that died of it so both were heavily monitored and checked regularly for it.

[quote] course they do, but there comes a point where it doesn't matter how much money you have. It is out of your or your doctor's hands.

There comes a time when anyone’s terminal cancer is out of their & their doctors hands. And that time comes later for celebrities & the rich who seek treatment in a timely manner. Sometimes, much later.

Trust, Steve Jobs would not have received a liver transplant if he was 54 year old Steve Jones, postal worker. A liver transplant for people whose terminal cancer has metastasized to the liver isn’t treatment. protocol.

Alex Trebek must be doing everything Valerie Harper told him!

Cancer treatment has made amazing progress. It is encouraging to see that what was once a “3 months to live” diagnosis can now be 2-3+ years.

I think WHERE you live and get treated is what matters most. You do not want to have cancer in Montana or Idaho. It’s a reason to live near a major city - or Cleveland or Rochester, MN. The doctors and medical teams with experience are invaluable. Even if you’re on Medicare.

Trebek has a tremendous will to live...there was a NYT interview linked on DL where he spoke of how the show helped his morale and he felt a responsibility to the viewers to continue hosting. You can't compared that to someone unknown and in debt up to their eyeballs who has had to resign from their job and possibly lose their insurance...Trebek has every reason to live and beat this. And yes, he also has the best doctors, I'm sure.

Those saying only the rich get good medical care...what about Kelly Preston? Or Patrick Swayze? Or Paul Newman? Or even ol' Ted Kennedy? At some point, the cancer takes over and the will to live is superceded by nature's course. Besides which, each individual is different based on their DNA and health habits.

Or r42 maybe the will to live was not that strong, sometimes people are just ready to go, tired of all the challenges in life.

R43, good point. You type with wisdom!

Some people are "good responders" and some aren't. A lot of it is not only your own genetics but the DNA of your cancer.

There are women who have survived with Stage 4 breast cancer for over 20 years. The other cancer that's seeing a significant life extension is Stage 4 bowel cancer.

And some are actually cured of Stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma, which is think is the most treatable or "best" cancer. Thyroid cancer usually does well, too. And Lance Armstrong's kind - testicular. Wouldn't you know that cheat who gave himself cancer would get cured,

Jesus 💞 Alex !

Privileged white man is why he's alive.

It always amazes me how people can argue over opinions that are equally valid and not mutually exclusive. Yes, of course, I'm sure that rich people with cancer (for example) who have access to the very best health care live longer on the average than non-rich people with the same kind of cancer who can't afford and/or don't have access to the same quality level of health care. And yes, of course, it's ALSO true that cancer can often progress to a point where even the best doctors can do nothing more for even the richest and most powerful patients.

Understand?

Thanks for mansplaining cancer to us,R48! We never would've understood the complex dynamics if you hadn't been here to educate us.

Valerie Harper announced that she had 2 weeks to live and she ended up living another 10 years. She even outlived Mary Tyler Moore.

Valerie lived another six and a half years.

37th season kicked off Monday and Alex is still going strong.

I'm sure Alex Trebek is getting the best medical care available. My uncle got diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and was given about 6 months to live. He was dead in 5 weeks. I don't begrudge Alex's treatments and survival rate, but he is the exception in stage 4 pancreatic cancer patients.

I've known a few who have clung to life out of sheer spite.

Some people are just lucky, I guess.

When one of those awful Purdue Pharma company owners dies of cancer, it makes me doubt that there's a secret, amazing cure for cancer out there.

If this Jonathan Sacker doesn't have access to a miracle drug, then I doubt one exists.

Slavic men can live long.

[QUOTE] If this Jonathan Sacker doesn't have access to a miracle drug, then I doubt one exists.

Or R56 they sacrificed him to make us think that.

He's pulling a Rhoda who like Alice's Tommy died of Covid19, only it was not known as such back then. Like the thousands of people in the 60s and 70s who died of AIDS before it was known.

There is a difference when one has excellent access to healthcare. Catching cancer early can be a game changer, or at least extend time left. I've known plenty of people that died of cancer because years went by before any doctor bothered beyond throwing antidepressants at them for "phatom pain/ anxiety".

I have a few flat moles that give all the warning signs (A/asymmetrical, B/ border, C/color, D/diameter model), so the GP expressed extreme concern. Told me to come back in for testing. GP decided not to bother, referring to dermatologist -- waited months, paid $50, just to have them tell me to have my partner take pics and keep an eye on the ones I can't see. That was with decent insurance.

Through my job, we used to participate in an annual fund raiser to pay for a $300 test that could prevent a disease that costs hundreds of thousands to treat (for a lifetime, 90% patients ending up on gov healthcare) if it isn't caught soon enough. These health clinics and insurance companies wouldn't bother doing a simple test without donations -- if that doesn't say something, I don't know what does.

I knew an elderly woman who was diagnosed with the same type of brain cancer as Senator Kennedy, at the same time. She was on Medicare and lived until a year ago.

R61 that's pretty amazing. That's the other thing, some people really do just have a "miracle" happen. Like the rare person that wakes up from their decades long coma. Our one neighbor had advanced breast cancer and swore that not eating sugars, combined with medical treatment, saved her life.

I did some reading and the no sugar thing has some evidence behind it -- some tumors thrive on sugars. Obviously it really depends on the type of cancer though.

R59 Did Tommy really die of COVID, or is this just some sort of Datalounge fan fiction?

[QUOTE] I did some reading and the no sugar thing has some evidence behind it -- some tumors thrive on sugars.

It seems like all bad things in our bodies thrive on sugar. We really should keep it minimal in our diets, cancer or no cancer. But I guarantee that the increased inflammatory state of the body from a diet high in sugar contributes mightily to the rise and spread of various cancers today.

Steve Jobs received his liver from Tennessee. He was a California resident. The hospital received an anonymous $40 million donation.

R65 A lot of good it did him.

Judy Davis's husband Colin Friels had pancreatic cancer back in the 80s or 90s. He's the only person I've heard of who's lived with pancreatic cancer for so long. They apparently have quite the turbulent marriage with cops called to the house, etc.

He just announced on Wednesday that ken Jennings had joined the Jeopardy team as something, so I imagine they're grooming him to take over when Trebek is no longer able to do the show.

His hatred of gays is keeping him alive. Loathesome idiot.

R69 What the hell are you talking about? Trebek has been quite outspoken about his support of gay rights and same sex marriage.

Peggy was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, remember, and the doctor at Cancer Treatment Center told her he didn't see any expiration date stamped on the bottom of her foot.

And she's still alive!

Some people are just lucky. My friend’s mother is 80-something, had breast, bowel and lung cancer and that old crab is still driving around and playing cards with the other old crabs and tormenting her children. I thought for sure she’d be dead. It’s been years.

A neighbor had stage 3 metastatic breast cancer over 30 years ago. She had a double mastectomy and chemo and I believe radiation and she is still alive in her early 90s and mobile. I see her regularly walking with her shopping cart to the local grocery and fruit market. But to be fair she is the exception to the rule.

R12 I had similar experience as yours. I’m also a DNP and when I worked on a surgical unit the same things were reiterated to us providers from MDs to NPs. I remember the exact words used of rich donors as “potentially grateful patients”. This is so the institution can say they’re not discriminating against regular patients and the poors if they come out and say “rich patients who should get VIP treatment”. The only other patients aside from rich/ famous who receive VIP care are those who are family/ friends of the surgeons or providers.

Regarding pancreatic cancer, it’s not a one size fits all cancer. Depending on where the tumor started and where it spreads (aside from staging), there are variable survival timeframes. What’s more depending on how operable the tumors are, surgical options include life-extension to hopeful cure. Sometimes the tumors are too big and need to shrink with the help of chemo before surgery can be even considered. That’s why survival is highly individual. Lastly with this type of cancer there are the slow growing, less deadly varieties that Steve Jobs had and I suspect RBG has.

[quote]Thanks for mansplaining cancer to us,[R48]! We never would've understood the complex dynamics if you hadn't been here to educate us.

R49, you may understand (or think you understand) how cancer works, but clearly some others don't if they're being to stupid as to argue over two statements that are BOTH true: (1) generally speaking, rich people have a better chance of surviving cancer due to being able to afford better medical care than poor people, but (2) depending on the type and stage of cancer, even the richest person in the world can't necessarily buy their way out of death from it. But you are probably too stupid to even understand the concept of mutual exclusivity, and when two statements do or do not fit into that category.

P.S. You used the ridiculous word "mansplaining," but how the hell do you know I'm a man, asshole?

What sucks is the inability to catch pancreatic cancer early. Almost no progress has been made in catching so many cancers early. Breast cancer /mammograms shows it can be done and it really matters - but little to nothing has been done to develop effective screening for most killer cancers. As someone with early cancer- riddled family history including pancreatic, it feels like living with HIV before there was a test for it. Even if you know you have cancer genes, it’s useless because they can’t effectively screen for most.

[quote]In the end it wasn't even the cancer that killed him, it was an infection caused by botched surgery. He was well-off but not a 1%er.

Same with a friend's mom, she had successful results from colon cancer surgery, then, a few months later, she went back to the hospital for some other procedure not related to the cancer. His mom ended up with an infection which killed her.

A relative went in for heart surgery, he was always a slim person. The heart surgeon had an intern stitch up after the heart surgery, the intern ended up perforating my relative's stomach because of, I guess incompetence, and my relative being very slim. He died after being in a coma for two months. The perforated stomach caused a massive infection. Flushing him with antibiotics did not work.

The heart surgeon had the audacity to tell my relative's wife, "The heart surgery was very successful." WTF? My relative's wife sued and won the lawsuit. This happened at the same NYC hospital where Andy Warhol died.

Money and fame.

Paul Allen Wikepedia:

"Allen was diagnosed with Stage 1-A Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1982. Although his cancer was successfully treated by several months of radiation therapy, Allen was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2009. Likewise, the cancer was successfully treated until it returned in 2018, which ultimately caused his death by septic shock on October 15. He was 65 years old.

Net Worth: $20 billion

R12 Say what beeotch ?

OP = Ruth Bader Ginsberg

Fuck off, R81.

RIP - Alex Trebek at 80.

OP is a murderer.

Damn, 2020 can’t end soon enough 😭😭🥺

Spoiler Alert -

You may wish to leave this thread now.

It may not end well.

I liked him

Damn, another one I never had the chance to fuck

I’ll take “Threads that didn’t age well” for $400, Alex.

Game show host KILLER!

Are you happy now, OP? Well, are you? Tell us, OP, are you happy now?

Never heard anyone say anything bad about him.

Beloved.

RIP. You are assured that the answers to all your questions are now winners.

The OP of this thread ought to be ashamed of himself.

I am heartbroken to hear of his passing. He did however exceed most expectations of survival of pancreatic cancer stage 4. He was diagnosed in March 2019 and was a given a 3-6 months diagnosis. Thanks to receiving the very best treatments he survived 20 months, which is better than 90% of others in that situation. I was very happy when he made it to his 80th birthday in July 2020, and it looked like he might make it to see 2021 but it wasn't to be. He lived a good life and was a special part of many Jeopardy viewers.

"We love you, Alex." - contestant Dhruv Gaur

RIP.

I'm going to miss you, Alex. I wondered today if you waited until the U.S. had another decent man to count on every day before you felt you could let go. Love from a fellow Canuck.

OP , He's DEAD . YOU KILLED HIM.

Um, hello, I'm available to be the new Colonial Penn spokesman. Call me, maybe?

I just saw part of an interview where Alex says the next host should be a woman!

Don’t know how long ago that was, though.

Did you all know that Peggy from Cancer Treatment Centers of America died in 2018?

Why are there no more Cancer Treatment Centers of America commercials on TV?

I thought Trebek was a Republican, along with Pat Sajak, Chuck Woolery -- I remember wondering why these game show hosts were always R's. Then I remembered they make mighty big $$$. That's what flipped Reagan to the dark side, along with that witch he married, Nancy or whatever. That's why the damned rappers turn R. Rich people be bad, almost every one.

Was he a Trumper, R102?

I doubt it, R103 but still might have voted R because of the party's policies, even while despising Trump, which I'd bet that he did, along with most intelligent R's.

OP Trebek died on Sunday.

The Carillon on Parliament Hill in Ottawa plays the theme from Jeopardy! in honour of Alex Trebek. The sound is a little quiet; you may need to turn up your volume.

Thanks for re-mansplaining this obvious information, R75. With all those smarts, you must be a rocket surgeon.

R107, what I wrote in my post was clearly NOT obvious information for people (like you?) who keep needlessly arguing with each other because they're too stupid to understand that, often, two statements that might initially seem somewhat contradictory can BOTH be true. P.S. Go to hell :-)

R108 = too stupid to even be on Wheel of Fortune

R109 = too nasty (and stupid) to thrive even in Trump's America. But now that The Orange One's Presidency is almost over, maybe R109 will be gone as well, or at least shut up for a while.

P.S. Despite your condescending and typically bitchy comment, dear R109, I would say that quite a bit of knowledge and intelligence is necessary to be a winner on WHEEL OF FORTUNE. I'm SURE you're too pretentious to agree. And I'm sure that, other than JEOPARDY!, the ONLY things you watch on TV are on PBS.

Ugh, that loathsome, smug toad will be first to try out the hosting duties.

Fuck him.

I will not watch.