Abstract This retrospective pooled analysis aims to identify factors predicting relapse despite a pathologic complete response (pCR) in patients with breast cancer (BC). 2066 patients with a pCR from five neoadjuvant GBG/AGO-B trials fulfill the inclusion criteria of this analysis. Primary endpoint is disease-free survival (DFS); secondary endpoints is distant DFS (DDFS) and overall survival (OS). After a median follow-up of 57.6 months, DFS is significantly worse for patients with positive lymph nodes (cN+ vs cN0 hazard ratio [HR] 1.94, 95%CI 1.48–2.54; p