Alex Trebek returns to Jeopardy after cancer treatment

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Alex Trebek returned to 'Jeopardy!' on Monday night (09.09.19) following his cancer treatment.

The 79-year-old TV star was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer in March, and after announcing in May he was nearing remission, he recently completed his chemotherapy and was back to host the first episode of the 36th season of the US game show.

During the intro for the programme, he said: "I truly hope you folks have enjoyed revisiting some of our special tournaments throughout this past summer.

"But today, Jeopardy! begins its 36th season on the air and I'm happy to report, I'm still here."

Just a few weeks ago, the host updated fans to let them know he's "on the mend" after completing his course of treatment.

He said: "I've gone through a lot of chemotherapy and thankfully that is now over. I'm on the mend, and that's all that I can hope for right now.

"We have some exciting things coming up and I can't wait to share them with you all. It's going to be a good year."

When Alex revealed his diagnosis, he admitted his prognoses was "not very encouraging", but insisted he would fight his illness.

He said at the time: "Just like 50,000 other people in the United States each year, this week I was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. Now, normally the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I'm gonna fight this and I'm gonna keep working and with the love and support of my family and friends and with the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease."

Two months later in May, the TV star - whose cancer has a survival rate of just nine percent - said he was "near remission", with some of his tumours having shrunk by "more than 50 percent" already.

He said: "It's kind of mind-boggling. The doctors said they hadn't seen this kind of positive result in their memory ... some of the tumours have already shrunk by more than 50 percent.

"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 minimise the value of that."