About Us

At Can-Am HIFU, we are committed to maintaining the patient’s best possible quality of life after delivering an effective, non-invasive, curative prostate cancer treatment.
  • Can-Am HIFU is the leader in High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) for the treatment of localized prostate cancer. We were the first Sonablate HIFU centre in North America.
  • Since opening our clinic in March of 2006, we have treated over 1,500 patients with the Sonablate HIFU, the only HIFU technology that has been cleared by both Health Canada and the FDA.
  • In addition to the active clinical practice, we operate a training and certification program. HIFU doctors who have been trained and certified at our facility are now working throughout Canada and in many locations worldwide.
  • Can-Am HIFU is accredited and certified as an “Out of Hospital” (OHP) treatment facility by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.

Our Physicians

Jack Barkin
Dr. Jack Barkin
MD, FICS, FACS, DABU, MHM, CCPE, FRCS
Dr. Jack Barkin is the founding partner of Can-Am HIFU and Medical Director. He performed the first Canadian HIFU treatment on March 12, 2006. He has trained over 25 urologists on the proper delivery of HIFU.

Dr. Barkin graduated with honours from medical school at the University of Toronto. He served on numerous medical advisory boards and has been published extensively in medical and urology journals with over 80 peer reviewed articles. He reviews articles for numerous other urologic journals as well as reviewing abstract submissions for many International Urologic meetings.

Dr. Barkin is a world-renowned expert on sexual dysfunction. His clinical and research interests include erectile dysfunction, prostate diseases - benign and malignant, male menopause, bladder cancer and new urologic technology and techniques. Dr. Barkin brought Urolift to Canada and created the first center in Canada to do Blue Light Cystoscopy.

Dr. Barkin is an Clinical Professor, Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He was instrumental in starting the Robotic Surgical Program at Humber River Hospital. He is a past Chief of Urology, Chief of Surgery and Chief of Staff at Humber river Hospital.
Dean Elterman
Dr. Dean Elterman
MD, MSc, FRCSC
Dr. Dean S. Elterman completed his medical degree followed by residency in urologic surgery at the University of Toronto. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 2011.

Dr. Elterman has worked in the areas of men’s health and survivorship at the Iris Cantor Men’s Health Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College and at the University of Toronto. He is the Medical Director of the Prostate Cancer Rehabilitation Clinic at Princess Margaret Hospital Cancer Centre.

Dr. Elterman’s clinical and research interests include male health, voiding dysfunction and reconstruction including BPH, incontinence (male sling/artificial urinary sphincter), sexual dysfunction (penile prosthetic surgery); female voiding dysfunction including overactive bladder (sacral neuromodulation) and urinary incontinence.
Antonio Finelli
Dr. Antonio Finelli
MD, MSc, FRCSC
Dr. Tony Finelli is a urologic oncologist and surgeon investigator at the University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto and a Professor at the University of Toronto. He is the Chief of Urology, GU Site Lead at the Princess Margaret Cancer Center and the inaugural GU Oncology Lead for the province of Ontario (Cancer Care Ontario).

Dr. Finelli’s clinical practice focuses on the management of urologic malignancies with minimally invasive and robotic techniques. He has performed live surgery for instructional purposes in more than 10 countries. Dr. Finelli is recognized nationally and internationally for his contributions to minimally invasive urologic oncology.
Neil Fleshner
Dr. Neil Fleshner
MD, MPH, FRCSC
Dr. Neil Fleshner is Chair and Professor at the Division of Urology, University of Toronto. Dr. Fleshner is certified in both urology and epidemiology. He earned his MPH degree from the School of Public Health at Columbia University and completed his oncology training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Aside from surgical practice, Dr. Fleshner conducts research on urologic cancer prevention with an emphasis on prostate cancer. He has authored over 400 scientific papers. Dr. Fleshner’s current research projects include 2 randomized trials of nutritional intervention in prostate cancer as well as laboratory work assessing oxidative biomarkers and cell cycle regulation in prostate cancer cells exposed to micronutrients.
Laurence Klotz
Dr. Laurence Klotz
MD, FRCSC
Dr. Laurence Klotz, M.D. is the past Chief of Urology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He is also Chairman of the World Uro-Oncology Federation. Additionally, Dr. Klotz is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Urology.

Dr. Klotz obtained his medical degree from the University of Toronto and completed his residency at the University of Toronto Gallie Program in Surgery. Dr. Klotz continued his postgraduate studies with a special fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York in uro-oncology and tumour biology.

Dr. Klotz is a widely published uro-oncologist who serves on the board or heads many medical/scientific organizations and committees.
Nathan Perlis
Dr. Nathan Perlis
MD, MSc, FRCSC
Dr. Perlis completed his medical school, urology residency and urological oncology fellowship training at the University of Toronto. During residency, he pursued the Surgeon Scientist Training Program where he completed a Masters in Clinical Epidemiology and focused on quantifying patient-level quality of life assessments. During his fellowship, his clinical and research interests focused on prostate cancer, including: bio-markers, risk assessment, novel technologies for partial gland ablation, and robotic surgery.

His clinical practice focuses on management of genitourinary malignancies, with particular focus on prostate and kidney cancers. This includes minimally invasive robotic surgical techniques, image guided therapeutics and diagnostics.

Dr. Perlis is currently an investigator in 4 studies using novel technologies (HIFU, laser, PDT, porphysomes) in prostate cancer and is funded to design patient-centred prostate MRI reports.
Darrel Drachenberg
Dr. Darrel Drachenberg
MD, FRCSC
Dr. Drachenberg attended medical school at the University of British Columbia and urology residency at Dalhousie University. He became an American Foundation of Urology Scholar and did fellowship training in urologic oncology at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland where he was immersed in basic science uro-oncology research including work in nonmyeloablative stem cell transplantation in cytokine refractory metastatic renal cell carcinoma and hormone refreactory prostate cancer. During this time he was also trained in the uses of laparascopy, cryotherapy and high intensity focused ultrasound. He has brought his expertise in these areas to Manitoba and has started the laparascopic urology program and prostate brachytherapy, cryotherapy, and HIFU programs in the University of Manitoba where he works as assistant professor of surgery and director of research for the Manitoba Prostate Centre and Section of Urology and Chair of the Genito-Urinary disease site group CancerCare Manitoba. Dr. Drachenberg has multiple peer-reviewed publications on prostate cancer and other genito-urinary malignancies.
Andrew Feifer
Dr. Andrew Feifer
MD, MPH, FRCSC
Andrew Feifer is a Urologic oncologist and minimally-invasive surgeon based at Trillium Health Partners (THP), Credit Valley Hospital and the Peel Regional Cancer Centre. He is also associate staff at the University Health Network, and an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto. Dr. Feifer's clinical interests are the management of prostate, renal, bladder, and testis malignancies, and he founded and leads the Centre for Advanced and Metastatic Prostate Cancer at THP where he specializes in the management of castrate resistant prostate cancer. He has active research interests in urologic oncology outcomes, holds numerous research grants including a CIHR/CSS innovation grant for prostate cancer, and is a leader in Digital Health technology integration and virtual care development in Canada, having created the first provincially integrated mobile health app for prostate cancer survivorship.
Martin Gleave
Dr. Martin Gleave
CM, MD, FRCSC, FACS
Dr. Gleave is a Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of Urologic Sciences at UBC, and a British Columbia Leadership Chair. He is Co-Founder and Director of the Vancouver Prostate Centre, now a UBC and National Centre of Excellence, and has published over 540 papers with >42,000 citations, an H-Index of 107, and attracted >$120M in research funding. Dr. Gleave is a clinician-scientist and urologic surgeon whose clinical practice focuses on urologic oncology in a multi-disciplinary environment at the leading edge of technologies and treatments spanning localized and advanced cancers. Dr. Gleave’s research characterizes molecular mechanisms mediating treatment resistance in cancer, focusing on adaptive survival responses that drive acquired treatment resistance, and designing combination co-targeting strategies to create conditional lethality and improve cancer control. He patented several anti-cancer drugs and founded OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals to develop OGX-011 and OGX-427, inhibitors of cytoprotective chaperones clusterin and Hsp27 now in Phase III and Phase II trials world-wide. OncoGenex was awarded Canadian Biotech Company of the Year in 2010. Dr. Gleave also recently co-founded TRiADD and Sustained Therapeutics.

In 2017, Dr. Gleave was appointed to the Order of Canada for his leadership role in developing new treatments for prostate cancer and for his research on mechanisms mediating treatment resistance in cancer.
Victor Mak
Dr. Victor Mak
MD, MSc, FRCSC
Dr. Victor Mak is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in Urologic Surgery. He has a Masters of Science degree in Molecular Genetics from the University of Toronto, and is a Clinician Investigator with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Dr. Mak is one of only a handful of urologists in Canada with formal post-graduate fellowship training in the sub-specialty field of male reproduction, andrology/sexual function and microsurgery of the genito-urinary tract. He has published widely in major international clinical and basic science journals. Dr. Mak was formerly an Assistant Professor and Surgeon-Scientist in the Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, at the University of Toronto. He sits on the Canadian Urological Association Guidelines Committee for the investigation and management of azoospermic males, and has been designated by the Canadian Urological Association and the Canadian Urologic Oncology Group as a Prostate Cancer Leader. Currently, Dr. Mak is the Multi-disciplinary Cancer Conference Disease Site Chair in Uro- oncology and Chair of the LASER Committee. He was the Chief of Urology, Department of Surgery, at Mackenzie Health from 2007 to 2017. He is the Cancer Care Ontario Prostate Champion for the Central Local Health Integration Network. He is also the Consultant Urologist for Mon Sheong Long Term Care Facility in Richmond Hill. In July 2016, Dr. Mak served as the surgical team leader in a short term medical mission trip in a remote Kenyan village.
Bobby Shayegan
Dr. Bobby Shayegan
MD, FRCSC
Dr. Shayegan is Associate Professor and Head, Division of Urology at McMaster University. He holds the David Braley and Nancy Gordon Endowed Chair and is the Director of the McMaster Institute of Urology. He completed his medical and residency training at the University of Toronto following which he pursued a comprehensive urologic oncology fellowship at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. Since joining McMaster University in 2006, Dr. Shayegan has also assumed numerous administrative and clinical leadership position, regionally, provincially and nationality and remains very active in optimizing the oncologic care of patients with genitourinary cancers. His clinical and research interests are primarily in the area of prostate and bladder cancer.
Alan So
Dr. Alan So
MD, FRCSC
A graduate of the University of Alberta, Dr. So came to the Prostate Centre as a Clinical Fellow in 2002, following completion of his residency at Dalhousie University. He is a recipient of many awards, including the Vancouver General Hospital Foundation’s “In It For Life” Clinician Scientist Award, an ASCO “Young Scientist Award”, and a prestigious Michael Smith Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship Award.

Dr. So is active in clinical trials across Canada and is a member of National Cancer Institute of Canada GU Clinical Trials Group and Canadian Uro-Oncology Group. Currently, he leads the Clinical Trials Unit at the Vancouver Prostate Cancer and is the Chair of the Urology Surgical Tumour Group at the BC Cancer Agency.

Patient Testimonials

My prostate cancer suddenly worsened to Gleason 7, and I faced the task of choosing how to treat it. I selected Dr. Dean Elterman at Can-Am HIFU because focused ultrasound was said to have excellent results with over more than a decade of use, be painless and, amazingly, the operation would be completed in a few hours. As a dyed-in-the-wool pessimist, I expected some difficulty, but I was very pleasantly surprised by the entire process. I went into the operating room at 8am, had a spinal anaesthetic neatly delivered and pain free, some sedation, and woke up at 12 noon with no grogginess. I had a drink of water, a sandwich, talked to the competent, friendly staff and my wife, and left the clinic for home at 2 p.m. I had no pain, absolutely none, the catheter was not really unpleasant, and once it was removed, I urinated regularly and easily. Dr. Elterman astonishingly replied to telephone calls and emails, a new experience for me. I don't yet know the long-term results, but I was more than pleased at the initial stages. Worth every penny!

J.L. Granatstein, Toronto

Two of my brothers had surgery for their prostate cancer. Luckily, I read about and was a candidate for HIFU. I had my HIFU treatment 4 years ago and am cured. I was back to work immediately and had none of the problems that my 2 brothers had suffered, such as trouble with erections and some loss of urine when they laughed or lifted.

I had my total HIFU treatment 8 years ago. I was back working as a Professor at the University 3 days later. I am voiding perfectly, have great erections and a negligible PSA.

I am a 44 yo man who was diagnosed with localized prostate cancer. I had my HIFU treatment, was back at work 2 days later and have a very low PSA. Thank you.

I had less discomfort getting my HIFU treatment than I did getting my hair cut!

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