DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

* Patients must have unresectable advanced or metastatic histologically or cytologically confirmed adenocarcinoma of the esophagus, stomach, or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ)

* Patients must not have received treatment for metastatic or unresectable disease
* Patients must not have brain metastases
* Patients must have measurable and/or non-measurable disease
* Patients who have had HER-2 expression testing prior to patient consent to this study must be HER-2 negative; if HER-2 expression has not been tested prior to patient consent to this study, a second specimen must be submitted for HER-2 expression; if the specimen is HER-2 positive (or if HER-2 could not be evaluated), the patient will not be randomized
* Patients must have completed any prior neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy for resectable disease at least 180 days prior to registration

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

* Zubrod performance status of 0-1
* Hemoglobin ≥ 9 g/dL
* Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) ≥ 1,500/mcL
* Platelets ≥ 100,000/mcL
* Total bilirubin ≤ 1.5 mg/dL regardless of whether patients have liver involvement secondary to tumor
* AST and ALT both ≤ 3 times institutional upper limit of normal (IULN) unless the liver is involved with tumor, in which case both AST and ALT must be ≤ 5 times IULN
* Serum creatinine < 1.5 mg/dL within 28 days prior to registration AND/OR calculated creatinine clearance > 60 mL/min
* Patients must not have motor or sensory neuropathy > Grade 1 using CTCAE version 4.0
* Patients must not be pregnant or nursing; women and men of reproductive potential must have agreed to use an effective contraceptive method
* No other prior malignancy is allowed except for the following: adequately treated basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer, in situ cervical cancer, adequately treated stage I or II cancer from which the patient is currently in complete remission, or any other cancer from which the patient has been disease-free for five years

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

* See Disease Characteristics
* All palliative radiation therapy alone must be completed at least 14 days prior to registration
* Patient must have no plans to receive concurrent chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, or any other type of therapy for treatment of cancer while on this protocol treatment