Jeopardy host Alex Trebek has excellent news about his stage 4 pancreatic cancer. The beloved host reveals that, despite the cancer’s five-year survival rate of 9%, he seems to be humming along.  In a cover story for People magazine, Trebek says his “tumors have already shrunk by more than 50%.”  While he’s been optimistic about his chances all along, even he admits “it’s kind of mind-boggling. The doctors said they hadn’t seen this kind of positive result in their memory.”

The story goes on to say that Trebek is in “near remission,” according to doctors, but the Jeopardy host notes that several more rounds of chemo will be required to go into full remission.

Trebek thanks his fans, saying: “I’ve got a couple million people out there who have expressed their good thoughts, their positive energy directed towards me and their prayers. I told the doctors, this has to be more than just the chemo, and they agreed it could very well be an important part of this. I’ve got a lot of love out there headed in my direction and a lot of prayer, and I will never ever minimize the value of that.”