The Paterson Institute for Cancer Research was instituted in 1962. Previously known as the Holt Radium Institute, it shared a location with the Christie Hospital in Withington from 1932. The Paterson Institute was named after its first director, Professor Ralston Paterson, who had been a world authority on the treatment of cancer by radiotherapy.

The institute received its core funding from the Cancer Research Campaign. Following the amalgamation of the Cancer Research Campaign with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, the institute became known as the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute on 1 October 2013.