Seattle doctor leads breakthrough study on prostate cancer treatment

Seattle Sports fans are no stranger to world-class performers. Both the Seahawks and Mariners announced their top 50 players of all time. The Seahawks finished the regular season with a franchise-best 14-3 regular season record and won ten straight on their way to their second Super Bowl title. Cal Raleigh crushed 60 home runs on his way to a close 2nd finish in the American League Most Valuable Player race.

For every accolade on the field, Seattle is equally impressive off the field. Take, for example, Dr. Robert Meier, Radiation Oncology Medical Director at Swedish Radiosurgery Center. A multiple-time recipient of the Seattle Met Top Doctor Award, Dr. Meier is the principal investigator on a breakthrough study published this year in European Urology, a leading international journal and one of the most influential publications in the field of urology.

Meier and his team at Swedish in Seattle pioneered the CyberKnife prostate cancer treatment about 15 years ago. The treatment is recommended by many physicians, including Dr. Meier, in part because it is minimally invasive, non-surgical, requires only five treatment days, each lasting about 45 minutes, is very effective in the treatment of prostate cancer, and has fewer side effects and less disruption to patients’ daily lives compared with other treatments.

For the Study published by the European Association of Urology, Meier and the co-authors conducted a 10-year trial measuring outcomes of over 300 patients treated with CyberKnife across 21 centers. Swedish CyberKnife was the lead site on the study. Their findings were incredible.

“Prostate cancer comes in different flavors or different grades or levels,” Meier said. “And so if we look at a low-risk prostate cancer, 10 years later, 94% [of patients] were still free of cancer. If we look at intermediate-risk prostate cancer, ten years later, 86% were still free of cancer. So these are really impressive results.

“And these patients were treated with just five doses of CyberKnife,” he continued. “They had to come in only for five treatments, and they did not need to have any hormone therapy on top of this treatment. They were just treated with these five sessions of CyberKnife.”

The results get even better when you consider the patients in the study were treated between January 2008 and April 2010.

“This was the technique that we pioneered 15 years ago,” Meier said. “And since then, we have gotten better. We’re taking advantage of the sub-millimeter delivery capabilities of the CyberKnife. We are now doing a better job of avoiding the bladder, urethra, and the rectum. We’re seeing even lower rates of side effects, urinary or bowel side effects.”

As technology has advanced greatly over the last 15 years, so too has the physician’s understanding of and ability to optimize the CyberKnife.

“We’ve also been able to push the CyberKnife to deliver a more effective dose to the cancer, the actual tumor within the prostate, and doing this has further improved our outcome,” Meier said. “So we expect with our new technique to see even better results.”

To meet growing patient demand, Swedish CyberKnife expanded its program, opening a second CyberKnife machine in March 2025. Compared to 15 years ago, Swedish has increased its treatment capacity, enabling more prostate patients to receive this 5-day treatment course.

“I believe this is the best treatment for prostate cancer,” Meier said.

Swedish CyberKnife is not necessarily for each patient, and Meier is quick to recommend a patient explore all options with his medical team prior to making a decision. However, the best part of Swedish CyberKnife treatment may be about what is yet to come, or rather what is already here.

What’s next?

A lot of men may be reticent to speak about their health or share key details with their family, friends, or loved ones. That could be for a number of reasons, including fear of the unknown and the desire to be tough. When it comes to prostate cancer, many patients are worried about losing romantic potential.

Meier and his team believe the CyberKnife has an answer.

“What we’ve been doing for the last few years is we have been identifying those nerves that give men their romantic vitality,” Meier said. “And we have been telling the CyberKnife to stay away from those nerves. Now, in the past, this was very difficult because we didn’t have this technology.

“Most radiation devices are not accurate to a millimeter,” he continued. “Well, suddenly we have this platform that can avoid those nerves and maximize the chance that guys continue to have a strong romantic life and quality of life. So our early results, looking at this data, we haven’t published it yet, but the early results are looking very favorable.”

Ultra nerve sparing is not an add-on to CyberKnife treatment like a premium channel package to your TV provider — it’s included in the treatment once discussed and agreed upon with the patient and physician.

If you, a friend, or a family member has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, it’s important to do research and explore all avenues for treatment. For those patients who choose treatment with CyberKnife, they can expect:

• Completed treatment in just five sessions.
• Each session lasting about 45 minutes.
• Fewer side effects than other treatments.
• Sub-millimeter accuracy in radiation, sparing nearby vital organs and nerves.

“The vast majority of patients are very pleased with the outcome,” Meier said.

For more information on CyberKnife treatment or to schedule a consultation with Swedish CyberKnife, visit Swedish.org/CyberKnifeprostate or reach them directly at 206-320-7130.

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