The Veteran's cause of death was intrahepatic biliary cancer, which the VA medical opinions concluded was not related to his military service or herbicide exposure.
The deciding factor: Multiple VA and private medical opinions concluded that the Veteran’s intrahepatic biliary cancer was not caused by his military service or herbicide exposure.
- Claimed conditions
- Intrahepatic biliary cancer, Cholangiocarcinoma
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 24, 2019
- Citation
- 19105300
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that the evidence did not support a causal link between the Veteran's cholangiocarcinoma and his military service.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that his cholangiocarcinoma was at least as likely as not related to his service-connected diabetes mellitus and/or in-service herbicide agent exposure.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that his cholangiocarcinoma was related to in-service exposure to herbicide agents and/or parasitic infection.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's cause of death, listed as cholangiocarcinoma, is being remanded for further evaluation to determine if it was causally or etiologically due to service.
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