New hope for hardening skin disease? drug trial aims to ease debilitating symptoms

This study is testing whether the drug baricitinib is better than the standard drug cyclophosphamide at reducing skin thickening and improving symptoms in people with early, diffuse systemic sclerosis (scleroderma). Sixty adults with recent disease onset will take one of the two drugs for 48 weeks while researchers measure changes in skin tightness, lung function, and quality of life. The goal is to see if baricitinib offers a more effective way to control this complex autoimmune disease.