Three years ago, I was commissioned to work on my first Dedifferentiated Liposarcoma (DDLPS) study.

At the time, I assumed recruitment would be difficult. DDLPS was a completely new tumour type for me. At the time, I had no idea that DDLPS was a disease area marked by decades of minimal therapeutic progress

Recruitment began, and to my surprise, I was able to recruit an extraordinary group of physicians: top treaters, key opinion leaders, medical oncologists, surgical oncologists — truly a dream team of experts.

I remember feeling proud of myself. I puffed up my feather and updated the client and enthusiastically shared that I had assembled a “dream team” of a sample.

But as the one-on-one interviews began, I quickly realized how naïve that thinking was.

This had nothing to do with me. Nothing at all..

The physicians participating were deeply invested in their DDLPS patients. Many spoke candidly about how difficult this disease is to treat and how frustrating it felt to rely on outdated therapeutic options for such an aggressive cancer.

What struck me most was that many of them agreed to participate because they hoped, even briefly, that I might be bringing news of a meaningful new treatment.

That stayed with me.

During an interview, a physician shared that he had personally created an outreach program within his province to help educate doctors on recognizing DDLPS earlier. I asked who was sponsoring the initiative. After all, organizing educational sessions, especially for smaller groups of primary care physicians, is incredibly time-consuming. He simply told me it was his own initiative, done voluntarily and entirely out of goodwill.

My client’s drug ultimately did not meet its endpoints. It failed. I was heartbroken. Yet another disappointment for this devastating cancer.

Fast forward to ASCO 2026, the SARC041 trial (abemaciclib) appears to be the first positive Phase III study ever reported in DDLPS. A glimmer of hope.