Hepatitis B virus increases the risk of a range of digestive-tract cancers and lymphoma, in addition to its well-known link to liver cancer, a large Chinese study has reported.

The research adds to previous studies on the virus’s wider role in cancer, which suggested it was associated with pancreatic cancer and lymphoma.

In the prospective study of nearly 500,000 adults, rates of any cancer were found to be double in people whose serum was positive for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) — tested using a rapid dipstick assay that indicated current infection.

As expected, hepatocellular carcinoma was nearly 16 times more likely to develop in those with current hepatitis B infection over nine years of follow-up, the authors wrote in JAMA Network Open.