All patients about to receive cancer treatment for haematological or solid tumours should be tested for hepatitis B virus (HBV) due to the risk of immunosuppressive treatment reactivating infection, specialists say.

New recommendations, published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday, are aimed at streamlining the screening and treatment protocol and overcoming current inconsistencies in clinical practice.

Australian oncology, infectious disease, hepatology and haematology specialists say patients with a chronic or past exposure to hepatitis B are at “substantial” risk of reactivation during immunosuppressive cancer therapy.

Given the number of Australians living with chronic hepatitis B infection and the number receiving chemotherapy, it is likely that several thousand people a year are at risk of HBV reactivation, they say.