Interesting study and kudos to the researchers for being able to follow-up patients long-term. Will need more studies and probably see if also applicable in other countries. This study also highlights the importance of healthy lifestyle and early screening/going to physicians regularly.

Key Takeaways
• Source: Lipids in Health and Disease
• Conclusion: “In Denmark, LDLR mutation-carrying HeFH relatives did not have a different cancer risk than the general population. In contrast, nonmutation-carrying relatives had a lower risk of cancer.”
• Danish researchers explored the risk of long-term cancer in patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HeFH). They established a comparison cohort and matched it 10:1 to the relatives from the general population. The primary endpoint was cancer diagnosis, and follow-up was more than 25 years.
• Risk among HeFH relatives not harboring the LDLR mutation was significantly lower, with low-malignant cancers (i.e., nonmelanoma skin cancer) not playing a role.
• According to the authors, “This study is of clinical importance to inform HeFH relatives both with and without an LDLR mutation given that no increased incidence of being diagnosed with cancer has been demonstrated. Furthermore, a lower cancer risk among the relatives without an LDLR mutation was observed. Whether this observation is due to an increased awareness of healthy lifestyle choices or lipid-lowering treatment requires further investigation. The lack of increased cancer incidence is of particular importance, as high levels of LDL-C have been reported to be positively associated with a less favorable prognosis in several major cancer types.”
• Strengths of the study include robust follow-up over a long period, with HeFH genetically verified.
• One limitation of the of this study is confounding due to lifestyle factors. Another limitation is the lack of continuous data on LDL-C levels.