After seven years battling a rare liver cancer, TikToker Rachel Yaffe has died at the age of 27.
TikTok star Rachel Yaffe was diagnosed with a rare liver cancer when she was 20 years old. She fought the disease for seven years before she died on October 11, 2024.
Yaffe’s fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma is a cancer that primarily impacts young individuals who are primarily healthy and don’t have underlying risk factors.
The TikToker’s cancer was diagnosed after she speculated gluten intolerance. When she was examined, it was discovered that she had a 20cm tumor in her liver.
Yaffe was immediately rushed into surgery to remove her tumor. Three months later, the tumor would return, spreading to her lungs.
Over the years, Yaffe altered her diet to boost her immune system with nutrients that her body lacked. While she hoped for a quick fix in what she referred to as her ‘healing journey,’ the remedies she sought couldn’t fight against what her body was undergoing.
In February of this year, Yaffe faced a major health setback when her lung hemorrhaged. In a TikTok post, she explained that bleeding began after a tumor put pressure on her heart, blocking the airflow to her lung.
From there, the TikToker underwent several life-saving surgeries and was intubated for three days. Eventually, her parents consented to Yaffe’s radiation treatment and immunotherapy.
“I lost so much of my strength when I was getting radiation and I’m starting from day one,” Yaffe said in a social media post. “It’s been so hard for me to get up and force myself to move so I’m working on doing that. Thankfully, it’s easier to walk around here being in the city. Plus I’m working very hard to stick to a very strict food regimen for cancer healing that’s also taking up a lot of energy.”
Before her death, Yaffe shared her passions, saying she had “so many dreams for my future.”
“I have so many dreams for my future and am passionate about sharing my life journey with others so they can skip the tough times and head straight for the joyful, healthy ones.”
She added that pre-diagnosis, “the sports field was my happy place.” As her body began to give in to her stage 4 cancer, Yaffe said she enjoyed “a good romcom, Netflix original, or reality show.”
In Yaffe’s last TikTok post from September, she was at her Manhattan apartment. Determined, she said she was “focusing on the small things that bring me joy.”
Yaffe isn’t the only TikTok star to have recently died from health complications, either. On October 5, Taylor Rousseau Grigg, 25, died from a severe asthma attack that couldn’t be fought off due to Addison’s disease.