Cancer Research and Treatment
Ordnance Survey map from 1935 showing the Withington area of Manchester and site of the Christie Hospital.
Manchester has had a long and important role in cancer research. The city remains at the forefront of improving practice and developing disease therapies. Over the last century, work on cancer has shifted away from palliative care to research, treatment and rehabilitation. In 1892 the first dedicated hospital for the care of people with cancer in Manchester was established. In 1901, it was named the Christie Hospital in honour of philanthropists Richard and Mary Christie, who were pivotal in its start-up. Following the discovery of radium in 1898, there were soon promising signs that it’s radioactive properties could be used to treat cancer. Funded by Edward Holt, a local brewer, the first Radium Institute was founded in Manchester in 1914.
Since the 1930’s cancer research and treatment has had close links with The University of Manchester. Dr Ralston Paterson (1897-1981), researcher and director of radiotherapy, with his wife Dr Edith Paterson (1900 – 1995) built the hospital’s reputation into that of a world-class facility. With physicist Herbert. M. Parker (1910 – 1984), they established the ‘Manchester Method’, the first international standard for the use of radium in cancer treatment. In the 1970s Dr Ian Todd and Dr Maya Cole led the first clinical trials of Tamoxifen, a drug still used in the treatment of breast cancer and as a preventative.
Mammography developed as a screening technique to detect early breast cancer in the 1950s. Special X-ray tubes, like this one from the Christie Hospital, emit ‘soft’ longer wave X-rays which are combined with a type of sensitive X-ray film to safely visualise soft tissues. The Christie is currently the largest single site cancer treatment centre in Europe, treating over 60,000 patients a year.
In 1931 the Christie Hospital and the Holt Radium Institute merged, opening at the new site in Withington in 1935 where the modern Christie Hospital and Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute are located today.
In 2023, after years of development, the new Paterson Building opened its doors for the first time. This new facility will continue to help to transform patient outcomes through integrated advances in the prevention, early detection and treatment of cancer.