In different breast cancer subtypes the association between pCR and long-term outcomes was strong in patients with triple-negative breast cancer (n = 90; HR 0.06, 95% CI 0.01–0.46; P < 0.007), while in the HR+/HER2- subgroup (n = 86; HR 0.04, 95% CI 0.00–194.71; P = 0.460) and in the HER2+ subgroup, no significant association between pCR and RFS was detected (n = 70; HR 0.66, 95% CI 0.20–2.15; P = 0.492; Additional file 1: Figure S6). Here, ERBB2 is linked to breast cancer.