US famous actor Patrick Swayze, best know for his role in "Ghost," has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, according to a statement made by his publicist yesterday.

"Patrick has a very limited amount of disease and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far," his physician, Dr. George Fisher, stated. "All of the reports stating the time frame of his prognosis and his physical side effects are absolutely untrue."

However, pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest of all tumors and only 4 percent of patients are alive after five years.

Swayze's mother Patsy has also confirmed his son has cancer, but believes her son has a fighting chance against the disease.

"I don't really want to talk about it, but I know he's sick," Swayze's mother said. "But he has great doctors and a great prognosis and that's all I can say."

Swayze, 55, was diagnosed in late January and has been flying his private Beechcraft aeroplane to Stanford University's highly-respected cancer centre in Palo Alto, California, for radical chemotherapy.

The statement also stated Swayze is continuing his normal schedule, which included working on upcoming projects.

Swayze recently worked on the A&E TV movie "The Beast," in which he plays an FBI agent. And another project in his works is the movie "Powder Blue," according to media reports.