CNIO Awarded Three-Year Grant to Advance MeCo Score in Breast Cancer

Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO). Photo: A. Garrido, CNIO

€320K grant awarded to internationally ranked top-10 cancer institute supports expansion of MeCo Diagnostics' predictive biomarker guiding antifibrotic therapy

SAN DIEGO, CA, UNITED STATES, February 26, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- MeCo Diagnostics, a clinical-stage precision oncology company enabling antifibrotic therapy for cancer, announced its long-time collaborator, Dr. Miguel Quintela-Fandino, Director of the Breast Cancer Clinical Research Program at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), has been awarded a three-year research grant to advance the MeCo Score for its lead indication.

The €320,000 ($378,000) grant from The Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) is titled, “Tumor Biomechanics and Precision Oncology: Evaluation of the Mechanical Conditioning (MeCo) Score and New Therapeutic Strategies in HER2-negative Breast Cancer.” The study will further evaluate the MeCo Score clinically, while also expanding the translational dataset supporting MeCo Score-guided antifibrotic strategies in numerous aggressive tumor models.

In 2024, Dr. Quintela-Fandino was the lead author of a proof-of-concept Phase 2 study which clinically validated the MeCo Score: Patients with early-stage, High MeCo Score breast tumors who received neoadjuvant antifibrotic therapy plus chemotherapy demonstrated a 62% reduction in risk of recurrence compared to chemotherapy alone, after 9.7 years median follow-up (P<0.05). In stark contrast, patients with Low MeCo Score tumors experienced no benefit from antifibrotic therapy.

As a first-in-class, drug-agnostic predictive biomarker, the MeCo Score uniquely enables rational selection of antifibrotic strategies in oncology, initially focused on breast cancer, with wide-ranging potential clinical applications spanning many common tumor types.

This grant from ISCIII, a major biomedical research agency in Europe, reflects continued independent clinical investigation of the MeCo Score, and it complements ongoing translational and clinical programs currently advancing MeCo Diagnostics’ lead asset and broader platform in the US.

Keith Grevenitz
MeCo Diagnostics
media@mecodiagnostics.com
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