Abstract

Biomarkers are modern diagnostics that can guide the treatment of our patients in daily clinical life and direct drug development in preclinical and clinical studies. Biological markers allow screening for diseases, giving prognostic information, and assessing disease activity. Over the last 20 years, biomarkers helped to prioritize drug development and minimize risks for drug attrition in late-phase clinical studies. Despite their central roles in modern medicine, the numbers of disease-specific biomarkers that we routinely assess in our patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) are limited. So far, past medical history, clinical examination, and equipment-based diagnostics (e.g., computed tomography, body plethysmography, and right-heart catheterization studies) dominate our treatment decisions in SSc.