Fig. 1

Flow diagram of the study design. A total of 815 Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER2) negative patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy with the regimen of cyclophosphamide, epirubicin and 5-fluorouracil; cyclophosphamide, epirubicin and 5-fluorouracil followed by paclitaxel or docetaxel and epirubicin; navelbine and epirubicin; or paclitaxel and carboplatin or paclitaxel and cisplatin were included in this study