Delgocitinib Maintains QOL, Productivity Improvements at 52 Weeks in Chronic Hand Eczema

Patients with moderate to severe chronic hand eczema (CHE) treated with delgocitinib cream maintained meaningful improvements in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and work productivity through 52 weeks of treatment, according to new data from the DELTA 3 (NCT05355818) open-label extension trial.¹ The findings were presented in a poster at the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, held March 27-31, 2026.

CHE affects approximately 5% of the general population and carries a substantial symptom burden.² The condition's manifestations, including itch and pain, can impair physical and psychosocial functioning, impacting patients' quality of life and ability to remain productive at work, the authors noted.

The DELTA 3 trial enrolled 560 participants who had completed the delgocitinib arm of the phase 3, randomized, double-blind DELTA 1 (NCT04871711) or DELTA 2 (NCT04872101) parent trials. In the DELTA 1 and DELTA 2 trials, delgocitinib showed greater efficacy than a cream vehicle and was tolerable throughout 16 weeks of treatment.³

“These results support the clinical benefit of delgocitinib cream as a potential treatment option for patients with moderate to severe chronic hand eczema, who are unable to adequately control their disease with basic skin care practices and topical corticosteroids,” authors of an analysis of DELTA 1 and DELTA 2 wrote.³

Of the patients enrolled in DELTA 1 and DELTA 2, 472 completed the 52-week study assessment and were classified as treatment completers in the analysis presented at AAD 2026.¹ The total treatment duration spanned 52 weeks: 16 weeks of twice-daily dosing in the parent trials, followed by 36 weeks of as-needed twice-daily treatment in DELTA 3, guided by Investigator's Global Assessment for CHE scores.

Across all 3 HRQOL instruments assessed—the Hand Eczema Impact Scale (HEIS), the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), and the EuroQol-5 Dimensions-5 Levels (EQ-5D-5L)—improvements achieved during the parent trials were sustained throughout the extension period. Among treatment completers, mean change from baseline to week 52 was −1.66 for HEIS (P < .0001), −8.5 for DLQI (P < .0001), and +0.20 for the EQ-5D-5L index score (P < .0001). Both the HEIS and DLQI improvements exceeded their respective minimally clinically important differences of 1.3 and 4.0 points, demonstrating clinical relevance. Subdomain analyses confirmed improvements across all facets of both instruments, including physical functioning, sleep, embarrassment, work, and daily activities.

Work productivity outcomes, measured with the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment instrument adapted to CHE (WPAI-CHE), followed a similar trajectory. Mean work productivity loss in the total population declined from 44.3% at baseline to 19% at week 52, a statistically significant reduction.

Presenteeism and daily activity impairment showed comparable sustained decreases across the study period. Absenteeism improvements in the total population did not reach statistical significance (P = .55), but among the prespecified subgroup of participants who reported absenteeism at baseline (n = 86)—a group with notably higher disease burden—significant reductions were observed across all WPAI-CHE domains, including a mean absenteeism decrease of 15.4 percentage points (P = .0002).

Taken together, the DELTA 3 findings support delgocitinib as a durable therapeutic option for moderate to severe CHE, with as-needed maintenance dosing sufficient to preserve the quality-of-life gains established during initial treatment.

“HRQOL and work productivity improvements demonstrated after 16 weeks of continuous twice-daily treatment with delgocitinib cream were maintained with as needed treatment up to week 52,” the authors concluded. “Disease-specific, dermatology-specific, and generic HRQOL outcomes were maintained throughout the long-term treatment period.”

References

1. Armstrong A, Stein Gold L, Bauer A, et al. Sustained health-related quality of life and work productivity improvements with delgocitinib 20 mg/g cream in chronic hand eczema – results from the phase 3 open-label extension DELTA 3 trial. Poster presented at: American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting; March 27-31, 2026; Denver, CO. Poster 72213

2. Apfelbacher C, Bewley A, Molin S, et al. Prevalence of chronic hand eczema in adults: a cross-sectional survey of over 60 000 respondents from the general population of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. Br J Dermatol. 2025;192(6):1047-1054. doi:10.1093/bjd/ljaf020

3. Bissonnette R, Warren RB, Pinter A, et al. Efficacy and safety of delgocitinib cream in adults with moderate to severe chronic hand eczema (DELTA 1 and DELTA 2): results from multicentre, randomised, controlled, double-blind, phase 3 trials. Lancet. 2024;404(10451):461-473. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01027-4