By ERIC NAGOURNEY

omen who are sedentary and significantly overweight may have a higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer if their diets are high in starchy foods like potatoes and rice, researchers have found.

The findings, which the researchers say probably apply to men too, appear in the current issue of The Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The researchers are from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health.

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The lead author, Dr. Dominique Michaud of the National Cancer Institute, began the research at Harvard in an effort to learn whether any risk factors besides smoking could be tied to pancreatic cancer. The disease, one of the most serious forms of cancer, kills nearly 30,000 Americans a year.

The researchers explored the role of starchy foods because they prompt the body to produce large amounts of insulin, which has been found to encourage the growth of pancreatic cancer cells. People who are obese or inactive are also more likely to produce greater amounts of insulin.

The study found that women with weight problems who were inactive were two and a half times as likely to develop pancreatic cancer if they ate foods like starches, compared with other overweight and inactive women with low starch intake. (Women who ate large amounts of the same foods but were physically fit were not at higher risk, the researchers said.)

The study involved only women because it was based on data generated by the Nurse's Health Study, a nationwide survey that has been tracking the health of women in nursing since 1976.