Rachel Yaffe, a 27-year-old TikTok star with a rare form of liver cancer, has died. She was diagnosed with fibrolamellar carcinoma cancer - a rare and distinctive type of liver cancer that affects people under 40 years and occurs in healthy livers, when she was just 20. Yaffe used to share updates on her health journey and amassed over 55,00 followers on the social media site.
What did Yaffe share about her liver cancer diagnosis? Last year, Yaffe offered details about her diagnosis in a TikTok video, recalling how everyone initially attributed her symptoms to “anxiety.” However, her ultrasound and a subsequent meeting with a hepatologist ended with her getting to know that she had a 20-centimeter tumour on her liver that was blocking the blood flow to her calves and causing shoulder pain. After she underwent a biopsy, Yaffe learned that her tumour was a “super rare adolescent liver cancer.
” Yaffe began chemotherapy earlier this year, but the tumour had grown in size, reaching her left lung and pushing on her heart. After the tumour began to bleed, Yaffe got radiation which made her bedridden. What is Fibrolamellar Carcinoma? According to the Journal of Liver Cancer, Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma or FLHCC is a rare malignant hepatic cancer with characteristics that differ from those of typical liver cancer.
FLHCC is common in young patients without any underlying liver disease and is known to be associated with a unique gene mutation. Even though it is a rare.
