Age:
Risk increases after the age of 50 with most cases diagnosed in people older than 60.

Gender:
Men are more likely to develop cancer of the pancreas than are women.

Race:
African Americans are more likely than white Americans or Asian Americans to develop this malignancy.

Cigarette smoking:
As many as 30 percent of cases of pancreatic cancer are thought to be related to cigarette smoking.

Diet:
The impact of lifestyle-related risk factors such as diet and exercise are difficult to specify. While consuming fruit, vegetables and dietary fiber seems to protect against pancreatic cancer, eating meat and fat appears to increase one's risk. Coffee drinking, once thought to be a risk factor for the disease, is no longer considered to be one.

Chemical carcinogens:
There is evidence that exposure to gasoline, metallurgic fumes and certain pesticides increases the risk of developing pancreatic cancer.

Family history:
Five percent to 10 percent of cases of pancreatic cancer occur in people with an inherited predisposition toward developing the disease. Individuals with a familial form of chronic pancreatitis (swelling of the pancreas) have a 40 percent to 75 percent risk of developing pancreatic cancer in their lifetimes.

Diabetes mellitus:
People with this disease, in which the body fails to produce or respond to insulin, are thought to increase the risk of pancreatic cancer.