The tumour-blasting ‘smart bomb’ cancer treatment which inspired the Telegraph & Argus Bradford Crocus Cancer Appeal has been awarded an extra £1.6 million of funding.

A Wellcome Trust award means researchers at Bradford University are now close to securing the £3 million they need to start clinical trials on the revolutionary drug, designed to attack all forms of solid tumours while leaving healthy tissue unharmed.

The ‘smart bomb’ has become a symbol of what can be achieved by researchers in Bradford and why readers should support the T&A Bradford Crocus Cancer Appeal.

The treatment pioneered by scientists at Bradford University’s Institute of Cancer Therapeutics (ICT) uses a natural compound from the native British crocus – called colchicine – to create a chemical entity which only becomes active and detonates when in contact with an enzyme released by a cancerous tumour.

Our campaign to raise £1 million will buy the Institute a mass spectrometer, which could allow its scientists to make similar breakthroughs ten times faster than ever before. The state-of-the-art machine, which will replace a five-year-old model, will allow researchers to study the role of protein in cancers, which could hold the key to developing new treatments which do not cause the damaging side effects of chemotherapy.

Incanthera Ltd, set up by staff at the University’s ICT, has been searching for investors and cash to prepare for tests on ICT2588 – which uses highly toxic drugs to attack tumours and can improve life expectancy in patients.

Dr Simon Ward, Incanthera’s chief executive, said: “ICT2588 is now being recognised by the industry as a serious and appealing new drug opportunity and we hope to now move rapidly to the clinic.”

As well as the latest award, the business has secured an undisclosed sum of cash from Technomark, gained £450,000 investment from SPARK Impact and has raised more than £200,000 of funding from people who want to improve the chances of surviving cancer. It is hoped clinical trials on the drug will start later this year or at the start of next year.

Prof Laurence Patterson, director of the ICT, said: “Incanthera has continued to attract venture capital funding and has now secured a major Translational Research award from Wellcome to secure the progression of ICT2588 to the completion of a phase one clinical trial.”