Actor Patrick Swayze, seen here watching a basketball game in L.A. on May 23, had been undergoing chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer. (Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)

Patrick Swayze, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March, is going back to work in the series The Beast after A&E picked up the show.

A&E has ordered 13 hour-long episodes, set to go into production this summer in Chicago according to The Hollywood Reporter trade paper.

The article quotes A&E executives as saying that Swayze's doctors had given the 55-year-old actor the green light to work. Swayze shot the pilot in January. The series is expected to premiere in early 2009.

"I have searched for quite a long time to find a character that is this multilayered, unpredictable and downright entertaining as well as a project this current and cutting-edged," said Swayze in a statement released on Saturday.

The Dirty Dancing actor did not address his health issues. Earlier reports had him close to death but his doctors have said the actor has small amounts of the cancer and is being treated with chemotherapy.

"Obviously, we've had candid conversations with him and his doctors, and we have a fairly high degree of expectation that Patrick will be good to work a full production schedule," A&E's executive vice-president Bob DeBitetto told the New York Times.

DeBitetto says there was talk of recasting Swayze's role after his prognosis was revealed but "everybody who saw the pilot said that Patrick Swayze was amazing in the part."

The article said Swayze was likely to continue his course of therapy throughout the four months of shooting with doctors in Chicago working closely with the actor's specialists at Stanford University in California.

The Beast concerns an FBI veteran (Swayze), who trains a new partner (Travis Fimmel) in his own unorthodox style while being pursued by a secret Internal Affairs team.

DeBitetto praised the show as "unique in its combination of emotional storytelling, compelling plotlines and action elements."

Swayze's breakthrough role was as a dance instructor, Johnny Castle, in the 1987 movie Dirty Dancing, a role that garnered him a Golden Globe nomination.

The actor also had a hit with the 1990 Academy Award-winning movie Ghost, also starring Demi Moore.