Robert De Niro

New York, Oct. 21 (Reuters): Academy Award-winning actor Robert De Niro, 60, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, but his prospects for a full recovery are good, his publicist said yesterday.

“Doctors say that the condition was detected at an early stage because of regular checkups,” Robert De Niro’s publicist Stan Rosenfield said in a statement.

“Because of the early detection and his excellent physical condition, doctors project a full recovery.”

Rosenfield declined to give further details about the actor’s condition or the course of treatment.

However, Rosenfield said that De Niro planned to fulfil his commitment to start shooting his next film, Hide and Seek for 20th Century Fox early next year.

De Niro won an Oscar as best actor in 1981 for his role as the emotionally self-destructive boxing champion Jake La Motta in Raging Bull.

He was also named as the best supporting actor in 1975 for portraying the young Mafia patriarch Vito Corleone in the classic The Godfather: Part II.

The native New Yorker, who shot to prominence in Martin Scorsese’s 1973 film Mean Streets, has received four other Oscar nominations as best actor.

These were for the films Cape Fear (1991), Awakenings (1990), The Deer Hunter (1978) and Taxi Driver (1976).

Best known for his tough-guy roles, De Niro was last seen in movie theatres reprising his comic turn as mobster Paul Vitti in the film Analyze That with Billy Crystal.