Could monacolin have caused skin cancer?

Lipiforma, like other preparations with monacolin, was withdrawn on June 22, because it was considered that taking up to 3 mg per day could cause side effects, including muscle breakdown, hepatitis and skin diseases. Lipiforma contained as much as 10mg, which is more than 3 times higher dose. However, it is difficult to determine whether taking lipiforma had an impact on the incidence of skin cancer, no cases of incidence after the use of monacolin have been described. However, the Authority concluded that there were individual cases of serious adverse reactions concerning monacolin from fermented red rice with intake levels of around 3 mg/day over a period of two weeks to one year, and that there were cases of rhabdomyolysis (muscle breakdown), hepatitis and skin diseases requiring hospitalisation. Epidemiological studies have shown that people taking statins (and monacolin has a similar structure and effect to statins) have a reduced risk of colon cancer.