Huang Y, Gui Q, Li H, et al. - Considering age as the primary predictor for upper gastrointestinal cancer in Chinese patients with uncomplicated dyspepsia is recommended, and 56 may likely be the optimal age to identify those lesions in this population.

• This study included 4,310 outpatients (mean age 44, median 42, range 14–86) undergoing their first esophagogastroduodenoscopy for dyspepsia, to unveil the current risk factors predictive of upper gastrointestinal cancer or peptic ulcer in China with high prevalence of gastric cancer.

• In 13.8% (595/4310) patients, presence of significant pathology was evident.

• Factors significantly linked with malignancy were: age, male gender and alarm symptoms.

• For upper gastrointestinal cancer, the revealed age cut-off was 56 years among patients with uncomplicated dyspepsia (defined as having symptoms other than alarm symptoms), which was similar to the combined cutoff of age and gender.