The Board denied service connection for diabetes mellitus, prostate cancer, colon cancer, and bronchiectasis as secondary to nicotine dependence acquired during service.
The deciding factor: There is no medical evidence of record demonstrating the veteran has a diagnosis of these conditions, and the weight of the competent evidence is against a finding that his conditions were caused or aggravated by long-standing smoking associated with his service-connected nicotine dependence.
- Claimed conditions
- diabetes mellitus, prostate cancer, colon cancer, bronchiectasis
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 19, 2006
- Citation
- 0601681
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,419 · Granted: 21% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0601681.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for diabetes mellitus, prostate cancer, visual impairment, hypertension, and erectile dysfunction due to lack of exposure to herbicide agents during service. The Veteran's claims were not granted.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for service connection for prostate cancer, bone cancer, and lymph node cancer has been granted. The prostate cancer is presumed due to herbicide agent exposure during service at RTAFB Takhli. Bone cancer is secondary to the service-connected prostate cancer. Lymph node cancer is also considered secondary to prostate cancer.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for service connection on the merits are being remanded due to new evidence and development needs. The maximum disability rating for tinnitus has already been assigned.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for diabetes mellitus, prostate cancer, ischemic heart disease, right lower extremity peripheral artery disease, left lower extremity peripheral artery disease, and hypertension as the evidence did not establish an in-service event or exposure to herbicide agents.
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