Table 1. Patient characteristics.

	All patients (N=88)
Characteristic	No. of patients
Age, years
⩽50/>50	33/55
Clinical stage
II/IIIA/IIIB,IIIC	61/18/9
Pre-treatment pathology
Invasive ductal/lobular/mucinous/others	85/1/1/1
Nuclear grade
1/2/3/unknown	2/24/61/1
Hormone receptor status
ER or PgR positive/both negative	23/65
HER2 status
Positive/Negative	43/45
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy
FEC → weekly paclitaxel (±trastuzumab)	31 (16 with trastuzumab)
AC → weekly paclitaxel (±trastuzumab)	30 (8 with trastuzumab)
AT (doxorubicin + docetaxel)	19
Weekly paclitaxel (± trastuzumab)	7 (3 with trastuzumab)
AC → docetaxel	1
Surgery
Mastectomy/Breast-conserving surgery	40/48

Abbreviations: FEC=fluorouracil+epirubicin+cyclophosphamide; AC=doxorubicin+cyclophosphamide; PgR=progesterone receptor.