TikTok star Rachel Yaffe, 27, dies from ‘rare form’ of cancer after sharing tragic last post just days before her death
Date: 2024-10-21A TIKTOK star who shared her journey with a “rare cancer” has tragically died aged 27.
Rachel Yaffe, from Maryland, US, was just 20 when she was diagnosed with fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma, a rare form of liver cancer that only affects 200 people worldwide every year.
Soon after receiving her diagnosis, she started posting about her “healing journey” and gained over 60,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram.
But Rachel tragically died on Friday following a seven-year fight with the rare disease, an obituary reads.
The creator made a heartfelt farewell post on social media shortly before she passed away, saying she was still optimistic despite feeling weak after another bout of radiation therapy.
She seemed upbeat in the clip, but she also revealed how her appetite was beginning to fade.
“Finding the little joys helps me stay motivated even on my worst days,†Rachel captioned the video.
The video has since been flooded with messages and tributes from fans expressing their condolences.
One person wrote: “Rest in peace, you were so young.”
Another added: “You deserved far more than the time you were given.”
Rachel, who shared her online battle with cancer, said that in her late teens, she felt like something was wrong but put it down to a gluten intolerance.
But she was directed to a specialist who found a 20cm tumour in her liver after seeing a doctor who understood her concern.
A biopsy then revealed Rachel had fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma, an uncommon type of cancer that primarily strikes young, healthy individuals.
The condition is very rare, affecting only 200 persons worldwide each year.
The majority of cases involve teenagers and young adults, while patients as young as two and as elderly as 74 have been reported.
The majority of patients receive a late diagnosis since there are few warning signs, and by the time the illness reaches other body regions, it has already spread from the liver and becomes much more difficult to cure.
For stage 1 fibrolamellar carcinoma, the five-year survival rate is 86%.
But if the cancer advances to stage 2, the survival rate drops to 44%.
Rachel was taken in for surgery a few days later to have the tumour removed after being diagnosed with stage 4 fibrolamellar after noticing bloating in her abdomen.
She thought that this would be the last chapter in her cancer story, but it was only the beginning as three months later, the disease returned in her lungs and liver.
At this point, she said she “kicked into gear with research and healing.”
The former college lacrosse player said that she had attempted every treatment available over the years, including both conventional and complementary therapies, to fight the illness.
After living in Los Angeles for a while, Rachel moved to New York in September last year, where her sister lives.
But in February of this year, just after making her big move, she suffered a serious health setback due to a lung haemorrhage.
Rachel explained in a TikTok video that the reason for this was that a tumour was pressing on her heart and obstructing her lung’s ventilation, which is what caused it to bleed.
Her parents gave their approval for her to begin radiotherapy and immunotherapy to decrease the tumour and stop the bleeding, while she endured numerous life-saving emergency treatments and was intubated for three days.
Rachel then gave an update in June, saying she was figuring out her next steps after receiving scan results that showed some “very positive parts and some not so ideal parts.”
Although most of the tumours on her body appeared “stable,” physicians were concerned about one in her belly, so she decided to get proton therapy to cure it.
Proton beam therapy uses beams of protons to treat the tumour.
But unlie X-rays, they stop moving through healthy tissue as soon as they reach their target.
According to Rachel, she discovered that the proton therapy had fewer negative effects on her and had no effect on her daily activities.
Following her most recent round of proton therapy, she went through her recovery process at her parents’ house in Baltimore before leaving for New York towards the end of August.
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