A potentially "game-changing" clinical trial for cancer treatments is under way at two south west London hospitals, funded by a Sutton charity.

Dr Pan Pantziarka, from Surbiton, is a scientist with the anticancer fund, and is working with a clinical trial testing a drug designed to fight malaria in patients with bowel cancer.

He co-founded the cancer charity George Pantziarka TP53 Trust after his son died in 2011. George had battled cancer since he was a baby, eventually dying aged 17.

The trial, now in its second run and conducted by St George's University of London, has 140 patients at St George's Hospital, Kingston Hospital and St Peter's in Chertsey.

The drug is used in patients around the time of surgery and could prevent recurrence of the cancer most commonly associated with surgical treatment itself.

In the first trial, of 20 patients, only one had the recurring cancer deposits associated with surgery, while six patients in the placebo trial did.

Dr Pantziarka said: "One of the big problems with cancer surgery is that the process itself can lead to it recurring.

"This is a problem in all kinds of cancers.

"You remove the primary tumour and there are tiny microscopic deposits of the disease in the body and they come back much more aggressively.

"What you are looking at is an intervention before surgery to stop that process kicking off."

The anti-malarial drug, called artesunate, is cheap and non-toxic, and could end up being used around the time of surgery in multiple types of cancer.

Dr Pantziarka said: "This is potentially a game changer in other cancers too, as there is nothing specifically about this drug that targets colorectal cancer cells."

The bulk of the funding has come from patient-led charity Bowel Disease UK, which contributed £200,000.

Alongside this, more than £50,000 has been raised through crowdfunding, helping the team cover administrative costs which would normally be free if a drugs company was operating the trial.

Professor Sanjeev Krishna, an infectious disease expert at St George’s, who is leading the study with Professor Devinder Kumar, said: "When we started crowdfunding, it was very much an experiment in my mind.

"Now it has evolved so positively, the benefits of interacting with interested people who are excited by our ideas becomes obvious.

"We can also make people aware of bigger questions around repurposing drugs for other diseases, so their value for patients can be identified as soon as possible."

Gary Douch, from Bowel Disease UK, said: "We are delighted to be involved in such a ground breaking project.

"BDUK was specifically set up to fund research and now we have the opportunity to be part of something quite unique and life changing."