Hepatitis B does not increase the risk for pancreatic cancer – only age is a contributing factor, a new study has found.

The results contradict a previous study in 2008 that suggested a link between pancreatic cancer and previous hepatitis B infection.

US researchers from the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit looked at more than 74,000 patients who were tested for hepatitis B between 1995 and 2008. In the overall analysis, only age was found to be a significant predictor for pancreatic cancer.

“We looked at the incidence of pancreatic cancer among hepatitis B-infected patients over a 13-year period and found that we could not confirm a higher risk for those with a previous exposure to hepatitis B, as a prior study suggested,” the researchers said.

Pancreatic cancer is the disease from which the late opera singer Luciano Pavarotti suffered.

According to the National Cancer Registry, there were 386 cases of pancreatic cancer diagnosed in Ireland in 2005. The incidence is expected to rise with an ageing population.

The study was presented at the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases annual meeting.