Selected gastrointestinal cancer presentations from the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting 2013 in review: it is not about the destination, it is about the journey

Introduction: In the GI tumors area, key findings from the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2013 annual meeting were long awaited, particularly in colorectal, gastric and pancreatic cancer. Areas covered: The following pages briefly present and comment on a selection of those studies considered most relevant for clinical practice and future research planning. The following trials were then reviewed: the FIRE-3, Triplet + beva (TRIBE), new EPOC, CAIRO-3 and SAKK in colorectal cancer, the TRIO-013/LOGIC and COUGAR-02 in gastric cancer and the metastatic adenocarcinoma of the pancreas (MPACT) and LAP07 in pancreatic cancer. Expert opinion: Although the proportion of clinical questions that these trials were able to answer was almost exactly paralleled by the introduction of new questions to be responded in the next (hopefully) few years, globally they represented a significant improvement in our knowledge about colorectal cancer and pancreatic tumors.