How Imperial College Healthcare Private Care embedded PSE into its workflow

Last updated: 25 Mar 2026

As access to the EpiSwitch® PSE prostate cancer detection blood test continues to expand across an ever-growing number of healthcare sites in both the UK and the US, it's an ideal moment to spotlight one of the newest adopters in London: Imperial College Healthcare Private Care, based at Thames View within Charing Cross Hospital.

The clinic—a leading centre for the treatment of prostate cancer in London—has incorporated the EpiSwitch PSE blood test into its routine prostate cancer assessment pathway for private care patients. This addition strengthens their already advanced diagnostic workflow, giving patients access to an accurate, minimally invasive tool for prostate cancer detection.

Why PSE matters to Imperial College Healthcare Private Care

In his blog article (read here), Mr Mathias Winkler, consultant urological surgeon at Chelsea & Westminster NHS Foundation Trust and Charing Cross Hospital since 2007, writes: "We are now offering the EpiSwitch® PSE test, a cutting-edge diagnostic test for prostate cancer. The PSE test is offered alongside the standard Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test, to help guide prostate cancer screening and diagnosis and can boost the accurate diagnosis of prostate cancer to 94%. This compares to the 55% accuracy of the standard Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test alone."

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the UK, yet there is no national screening program due to traditional testing relying on an initial PSA test, which is not an accurate indicator of prostate cancer by itself. Approximately 3 in 4 men with a high PSA level do not have cancer. As a result, many healthy men undergo unnecessary medical scans, invasive procedures, and, in some cases, even overtreatment, leading to significant anxiety and burden for patients, while also straining healthcare resources.

By analysing five highly informative tell-tale markers found in immune cells from blood, together with PSA, the EpiSwitch PSE test provides a far more comprehensive assessment of prostate cancer risk than PSA alone.

A groundbreaking real-world study based in the US, recently demonstrates that the next-gen EpiSwitch PSE blood test safely reduces unnecessary biopsies by up to 79% while accurately detecting prostate cancer.

Oliver Kemp, MBE, Chief Executive Officer of UK charity Prostate Cancer Research, commented on the publication: "This study shows how smarter testing can save millions while improving care for patients. Reducing unnecessary biopsies and scans means less stress for men and more capacity in the system.”

How it's used at the Thames View facility

Mr Winkler continues: “We provide the PSE test at Thames View, our private care facility at Charing Cross Hospital. Patients will have a blood test at their initial consultation and any questions they have will be answered by one of our expert consultants. The blood sample is sent to Oxford BioDynamics, who use advanced technology to diagnose whether prostate cancer is present. The test results will indicate either a 'low likelihood' or 'high likelihood' of prostate cancer.”

“If the test results indicate you have a 'low likelihood' of prostate cancer, your consultant urologist may decide that you are not required to have further invasive procedures, depending on family history and other risk factors. This 'low likelihood' result usually means that prostate cancer is not present in more than nine out of ten men."

“If the test indicates you have a 'high likelihood' of prostate cancer, you will be offered a prostate MRI scan and possibly a biopsy at the earliest opportunity and your consultant urologist will discuss next steps and recommend a management plan. A 'high likelihood' result usually indicates prostate cancer being present in nine out of ten men.”

Commenting on the launch of this service, Mr Winkler said, “Offering the Prostate Screening EpiSwitch® test will make a real difference to patients' lives by significantly improving the accuracy of prostate cancer detection, potentially reducing the number of unnecessary and invasive procedures like biopsies. We would encourage patients who have symptoms of prostate cancer to book a consultation with us to find out more.”

To read the full blog article by Mr Winkler published on the Imperial College Healthcare Private Care website, click here: Introducing the EpiSwitch® prostate cancer detection test

To learn more about how the EpiSwitch® prostate cancer detection test is used at the site, or to book an appointment, please click here: Prostate cancer | Imperial College Healthcare Private Care