This Recent Results in Cancer Research volume contains the majority of the invited expert contributions from the First St. Gallen EORTC Gastrointestinal Cancer Conference, held on 22-24 March 2012 in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Written by some of the worlds leading experts in the field, the volume constitutes a comprehensive update on recent developments in the imaging, molecular biology, pathology, and multidisciplinary management of early cancer of the gastrointestinal tract. The latest recommendations regarding diagnosis and treatment are provided, and areas of consensus and controversy, identified. While the principal focus is on esophageal and gastric cancer, advances in the treatment of colorectal and pancreatic cancer are also discussed in some detail. This book will be of interest to every clinician involved in the care of patients with gastrointestinal malignancies.

Clinically relevant study end points in rectal cancer.- Neoadjuvant treatment in rectal cancer: Do we always need radiotherapy?- Treatment dilemmas in patients with synchronous colorectal liver metastases.- Pancreatic surgery: beyond the traditional limits.- Adjuvant therapy for pancreatic cancer.- Radiotherapy of the pancreas: state of the art in 2012.- Adenocarcinoma of the GEJ: gastric or oesophageal cancer?- Why is there a change in patterns of GE cancer?- Open or minimally invasive resection for oesophageal cancer?- Criteria for selecting the best multimodal therapy.- When is the definitive radiochemotherapy the treatment of choice?- Radiotherapy of gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer.- Optimizing neoadjuvant chemotherapy through the use of early response evaluation by PET .- Optimal surgery for gastric cancer: is more always better?- Can adjuvant chemoradiotherapy replace extended lymph node dissection in gastric cancer?- Predicting the response to chemotherapy in gastric adenocarcinoma: who benefits from neoadjuvant chemotherapy?- Prediction of response and prognosis by a score including only pretherapeutic parameters in 410 neoadjuvant treated gastric cancer patients.- Selecting the best treatment for an individual patient.