Patrick Swayze Diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer

Actor Patrick Swayze has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, said his publicist in a statement. He is undergoing treatment for the disease but the cancer is not terminal, as tabloid reports previously claimed.

“Patrick has a very limited amount of disease and he appears to be responding well to treatment so far,” Dr. George Fisher, Swayze's personal physician, said in a statement. “All of the reports stating the timeframe of his prognosis and his physical side effects are absolutely untrue. We are considerably more optimistic.”

Fisher's remarks disapproved the news of Swayze's illness on a website, which said the ‘Dirty Dancing’ star had recently dropped 20 pounds and been given only five weeks to live.

The 55-year-old actor, according to latest reports, is carrying on with his normal schedule that includes working on upcoming projects. He was recently cast as a gay cheerleading instructor in ‘Fired Up,’ a big-screen comedy that began shooting last month.

The American Cancer Society estimates nearly 35,000 citizens will die of pancreatic cancer in the U.S. this year. The disease is said to have a very low survival rate of just 5 per cent.

Pancreatic cancer is the most fatal but unfortunately, the least acknowledged of all cancers. Research on the disease receives far less funding and attention from the National Cancer Institute as compared to other cancers.

The seriousness of pancreatic is owing to its hard detection, easy metastasis and resistance to corrective therapies.

Swayze's mother, dancer and choreographer Patsy Swayze, was as sanguine as the actor’s physician. "I don't really want to talk about it, but I know he's sick," Patsy Swayze said. "But he has great doctors and a great prognosis, and that's all I can say."

Patrick Swayze, in the 1980s and 1990s gave a string of hits that included ‘Ghost,’ ‘Point Break,’ ‘Road House’ and the most-popular, ‘Dirty Dancing’ in which he played Catskills bad boy Johnny Castle.