With the background of the famous Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, the annual Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium was held from 18–20 January 2018 in the Moscone Congress Center in San Francisco, California. In this report, the most important headlines will be discussed, with comments on the clinical relevance of the different studies.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2018:12(3):133–141)