Less than a month after Hong Kong actor Ng Man Tat died at 70 of liver cancer, another veteran actor is reported to be suffering from cancer.

Character actor Liu Kai Chi, best known for his award-winning turn in the movie Cageman (1992), has been hit by stomach cancer, said the Hong Kong media.

According to Apple Daily, Liu, 66, stopped working after he was diagnosed with cancer late last year.

He is undergoing treatment in a hospital.

His condition worsened at one point, but has improved under the care of his wife, former TVB leading actress Barbara Chan Man Yee, 60.

She told reporters waiting at the hospital yesterday that Liu went for a health screening last December as he had been feeling bloated after consuming food.

Chan hoped that the public can give him some space and declined to say which stage his cancer is at.

Liu, who started out at broadcaster TVB, has acted in more than 90 television serials and 70 movies in a career of about 40 years.

He has won the Best Supporting Actor award twice at the Hong Kong Film Awards for Cageman and The Beast Stalker (2008).

Liu has also appeared in a Singapore movie - crime film Imperfect (2012) produced by local actor Li Nanxing, who also starred in it.

The movie featured other local actors such as Ian Fang, Edwin Goh and Kimberly Chia, as well as Taiwanese actress Chiang Tsu-ping and actor Patrick Lee.

Liu and Chan have three sons. The youngest one died at the age of five in 2006 after a three-year battle with leukaemia. The other two sons are aged 22 and 26.