No one knows the exact causes of pancreatic cancer. Doctors can seldom explain why one person gets pancreatic cancer and another does not. However, it is clear that this disease is not contagious. No one can "catch" cancer from another person.

Research has shown that people with certain risk factors are more likely than others to develop pancreatic cancer. A risk factor is anything that increases a person's chance of developing a disease.

Studies have found the following risk factors:

• Age -- The likelihood of developing pancreatic cancer increases with age. Most pancreatic cancers occur in people over the age of 60.

• Smoking -- Cigarette smokers are two or three times more likely than nonsmokers to develop pancreatic cancer.

• Diabetes -- Pancreatic cancer occurs more often in people who have diabetes than in people who do not.

• Being male -- More men than women are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

• Being African American -- African Americans are more likely than Asians, Hispanics, or whites to get pancreatic cancer.

• Family history -- The risk for developing pancreatic cancer triples if a person's mother, father, sister, or brother had the disease. Also, a family history of colon or ovarian cancer increases the risk of pancreatic cancer.