Patrick Swayze has admitted he may have only two years to live after his 12-month battle with late stage pancreatic cancer.

In his first television interview since being diagnosed with stage four cancer, the star of Dirty Dancing told American TV host Barbara Walters he was "scared and angry" and had been "going through hell".

Looking gaunt and tired, the 56-year-old actor admitted that despite responding well to treatment and returning to work, he was running out of time.

"I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking,” he said of his predicted chance of surviving one of the most deadly forms of cancer.

“Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it."

He said despite already defying the odds (pancreatic cancer patients are usually only expected to survive six months), he is still scared about what the future holds.

"You can bet I'm going through hell," Swayze, recuperating at his California ranch with his actress wife Lisa Niemi, told Ms Walters in the interview which will be broadcast in the US on Wednesday. “And I've only seen the beginning of it.

"There's a lot of fear here ... Yeah, I'm scared. Yeah, I'm angry. Yeah, I'm (asking) why me?”

But he added that he would not give up on his health: “Am I dying? Am I giving up? Am I on my death bed? Am I saying goodbye to people? No way.”

Swayze, who went public with his diagnosis last March, said he first fell ill on New Year’s Eve in 2007 and realised he was sick when he couldn’t stomach a glass of wine.

“I tried to have champagne, and it would be like pouring acid, you know, on an open wound,” he said. “I dropped about 20 pounds in the blink of an eye. And then when you see it in the mirror, you pull your eyes down and the bottom of your eyes go yellow and jaundice sets in – then you know something is wrong.”

Swayze amazed Hollywood by returning to work just months after undergoing an aggressive course of chemotherapy and experimental drugs to combat the cancer he was diagnosed with in January 2008, which has since spread to his liver.

Swayze, who is best known as the seductive dance instructor in the 1987 romantic coming of age film Dirty Dancing and appeared in London’s West End in 2006 as Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, returned to work last June, starring in the cable TV crime series The Beast, which premieres in the US next week.

Despite the gruelling 12-hour day shooting schedule in chilly Chicago, Swayze said he worked without the aid of painkillers, opting instead to have chemotherapy sessions on the weekends.

“I think everybody thought I was out of my mind, you know, thinking I’m gonna pull off a TV show,” he said of shooting The Beast, adding that taking painkillers while shooting the show would have taken “the edge” off of his performance. In five months of filming he only missed one day of work.

The actor, who is also known for starring alongside Demi Moore in the 1990 romantic mystery Ghost and as a bank robbing surfer in Point Break, said despite his grim-looking future, he remained positive.

"I keep dreaming of a future, a future with a long and healthy life," Swayze said. "Not lived in the shadow of cancer, but in the light."

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