Treatment options for patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) are limited to management of disease manifestations in organs; however, real-world use of immunosuppressive treatments has not been investigated.

This retrospective cohort analysis of claims made in a US healthcare insurance database investigated treatment patterns for immunomodulating therapies received in the first year after diagnosis of SSc and their alignment with organ manifestations.

The most common SSc organ manifestations reported were in the lung, gastrointestinal tract, and heart, but only one-third of patients with diagnoses of SSc received immunomodulating therapy in the first year after diagnosis.

Among the patients who received immunomodulating therapy, the most common comorbidities reported with their first treatment were in the lung, overlap syndrome, heart, and gastrointestinal categories.

Disease manifestations reported in patients who received immunomodulating therapies were similar to those of the overall SSc healthcare claims population, suggesting that patients treated with immunomodulating therapy did not exhibit unique organ manifestations compared with those who did not receive immunomodulating therapy.