What are the causes and risk factors for pancreatic cancer?

It is difficult to discover what actually causes cancer from one person to another, but researchers have found several specific factors that increase a person’s likelihood of developing pancreatic cancer.

Risk factors for pancreatic cancer include:

• Over 50 years of age
• Men are about 30 percent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer than women
• African Americans are more likely to develop cancer of the pancreas than are white Americans or Asian Americans
• Cigarette smoking
• Diet high in meats and fat
• Diabetes mellitus
• An inherited tendency to develop this cancer may be a factor in about 5 to 10 percent of cases
• People with chronic pancreatitis may also have an increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer