Patrick Swayze is reportedly heading back to work soon.

The actor, who is battling pancreatic cancer, just had a television project green lit by A&E, and filming begins this summer, according to People Magazine.

Swayze will star in the police drama The Beast alongside Aussie actor and former Tarzan star Travis Fimmel, where the Dirty Dancing star plays a veteran FBI agent teaching his rookie partner (Fimmel) the ropes.

In a statement from the network, the 55-year-old actor said: "I have searched for quite a long time to find a character that is this multi-layered, unpredictable and downright entertaining, as well as a project this current and cutting edged."

The projects starts filming this summer on location in Chicago and is scheduled to premiere in early 2009, according to People.

Swayze recently told People that he is responding well to cancer treatment and he has been seen attending several public events.

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Swayze, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March, has been undergoing chemotherapy but not radiation treatment, his rep told People.

Caught in its advanced stages, pancreatic cancer, which strikes about 30,000 people a year, has a less than 5 percent survival rate for five years. If caught early and treated aggressively with surgery and chemotherapy — and if the cancer has not spread to lymph nodes — the five-year survival rate can go as high as 17 to 25 percent, said Avram Cooperman, surgical director for the Pancreas and Biliary Center at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan.

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