Pathological response of the primary tumor and lymph nodal downstaging of included studies
| First author | Sample size | Surgery completed | ypT (MPR) | ypT0 | cN2 | cN1 | cN2 to ypN1 | cN2 to ypN0 | cN1 to ypN0 |
| Provencio2 | 46 | 41 | 34 | 26 | 30 | 3 | 1 | 25 | 3 |
| *Rothschild3 | 68 | 55 | 33 | 10 | 55 | NA | 11 | 26 | NA |
| Shu4 | 30 | 26 | 17 | 10 | 19 | – | 2 | 11 | – |
| Forde5 | 21 | 20 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Gao6 | 49 | 37 | 15 | 6 | 13 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 8 |
| Zhao7 | 33 | 30 | 20 | 15 | 24 | 5 | 1 | 15 | 5 |
*The study only recruited cN2 patients.
MPR, major pathological response; NA, not applicable.