This Figure shows the Kaplan-Meier curve estimates of cumulative CHD-free survival among patients with FH, according to whether the patients were receiving statin treatment. In this Figure the solid line represents statin treatment and the dash line represents no statin treatment – which was possible because these data are essentially from patients before statin therapy was available, and then after statin therapy was approved, with the Y-axis showing the cumulative event-free survival. For these FH patients there was a clearly significant difference in event-free survival depending on whether the patients were on or off statins. Randomized placebo controlled cardiovascular endpoint trials in patients with FH have not been done because withholding treatment would be unethical. Nevertheless, the benefit of statin therapy in FH patients is clear.
J Clin Lipidol. 2011; 5(6).