Table 1.

Clinical characteristics of HER2-positive breast cancer patients and the univariate analysis of predictive biomarkers of the response to anthracyclines

Factors	Number of patients (%)	Clinical response			Pathological response
		Stable disease + progressive disease	Partial response + complete response	P	Complete pathological response	Incomplete pathological response	P
Age
45 years	34 (30%)	10	24	0.975	3	31	0.450
≥45 years	79 (70%)	23	56		11	68
Menopausal status
Postmenopausal	69 (61%)	20	49	0.949	7	62	0.364
Premenopausal	44 (39%)	13	31		7	37
Regimen
CEF	55 (49%)	15	40	0.660	9	46	0.212
NE	58 (51%)	18	40		5	53
Tumor size
≤5 cm	46 (41%)	21	25	0.001	4	42	0.323
>5 cm	67 (59%)	12	55		10	57
Lymph node status
0	43 (38%)	-	-	-	-	-	-
1 to 3	31 (27%)	-	-	-	-	-	-
4 to 9	25 (22%)	-	-	-	-	-	-
≥10	14 (13%)	-	-	-	-	-	-
Pre-estrogen receptor
Negative	78 (69%)	21	57	0.426	10	68	0.835
Positive	35 (31%)	12	23		4	31
Pre-progesterone receptor
Negative	83 (73%)	24	59	0.911	9	74	0.518
Positive	30 (27%)	9	21		5	25
Pre-pMAPK
Negative	34 (30%)	13	21	0.166	8	26	0.855
Positive	79 (70%)	20	59		6	73
Pre-pAKT
Negative	30 (27%)	14	16	0.014	4	26	0.855
Positive	83 (73%)	19	64		10	73
Pre-PTEN
Negative	40 (35%)	13	27	0.568	5	35	0.979
Positive	73 (65%)	20	53		9	64
Pre-P27
Negative	35 (31%)	15	20	0.432	5	40	0.737
Positive	68 (69%)	18	50		9	59
Pre-IGF-1R
Negative	47 (42%)	12	35	0.469	5	42	0.634
Positive	66 (58%)	21	45		9	57
Pre-cyclinD1
Negative	42 (37%)	14	28	0.458	4	38	0.477
Positive	71 (63%)	19	52		10	61
Pre-Ki67
Negative	43 (38%)	15	28	0.298	2	41	0.076
Positive	70 (62%)	18	52		12	58

IGF-1R, insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor; pAKT, phosphorylated AkT; pMAPK, phosphorylated mitogen-activated protein kinase.