TikTok star Rachel Yaffe has died after battling a rare form of liver cancer. She was 27.
Yaffe’s death was confirmed in an online obituary, which revealed she died on Oct. 11. In her obituary, her family said donations in memory of Yaffe can be sent to Experience Camps, a nonprofit organization for grieving children who have lost a parent, sibling, or primary caregiver, and is based in Westport, Connecticut.
Yaffe amassed over 55,000 followers on TikTok as she shared her experiences and treatments on her journey with fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (FLHCC).
According to the National Cancer Institute, the cancer usually affects teens and adults under 40 years of age, and differs from other types of liver cancers because it occurs in people with healthy livers. The NIH states that FLHCC affects about one in five million people in the United States.
In April 2023, the influencer posted a TikTok describing her story of being diagnosed with the rare cancer at age 20.
“I went to a doctor over the summer, who knew me personally, and she felt around my whole body. She even felt my liver and she didn’t feel anything, but she was like, ‘I can tell in your eyes that you feel like something is wrong with you,’” she said. “Everyone was making me feel like it was my anxiety and like I was crazy … It made me stop trusting my body in the signals that it was sending me completely, because everyone was telling me that I was wrong and they couldn’t find anything.”
Yaffe said she went to get an ultrasound the next day, and that a doctor told her she had a 20-centimeter tumor in her liver. She noted that the tumor had been blocking blood flow to her calves and referring pain to her shoulders.
She had a procedure to remove the tumor, but it came back three months later in her liver and lungs, she said.
Yaffe kept her followers updated on her health and cancer journey. She filmed another video in August, 2023 explaining her treatments for stage 4 cancer and reviewing her life and approach to healing at the time.
She said her proton therapy, a form of radiation therapy, made her feel “super fatigued, tired, [and] weak.”
“I finally started to feel a little bit strong enough to come back to New York where my support system of friends are, and where I also feel more inspired to go on walks and strengthen my body,” she said.
Yaffe shared her last TikTok update on Sept. 1, when she told her followers that she had lost a great deal of her strength during the radiation treatments.
“It’s been a little bit difficult both physically and mentally, but I’m working on really just focusing on the small things that bring me joy, and really, really prioritizing my mental health as well,” she said.
Yaffe is survived by her parents, Linda and Wayne Yaffe, her siblings Jordan and Jessica Yaffe, and her grandmother, Sydney Bass.