The Veteran's prostate symptoms and skin cancer are being remanded for further examination to determine if they are related to his service, including presumed exposure to herbicide agents while serving in the Republic of Vietnam.
The deciding factor: The conditions are not included in diseases subject to presumptive service connection due to herbicide agent exposure, but may still be entitled to direct service connection based on a relationship to service.
- Claimed conditions
- prostate symptoms, skin cancer
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 1, 2019
- Citation
- 19115461
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 19115461.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Partly granted
The appeal for service connection for skin cancer was dismissed due to untimeliness, while the claim for squamous cell carcinoma was granted.
- Dismissed
The appeal was dismissed due to the Veteran's death during the pendency of the claims.
- Partly granted
Service connection for prostate cancer on an accrued basis was granted based on the benefit-of-the-doubt doctrine, finding competent and credible evidence at least approximately balanced between service-connected prostatitis and prostate cancer. Service connection was denied for stomach cancer, colon cancer, skin cancer, the Veteran's cause of death, and dependency indemnity compensation benefits.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for skin cancer, including as due to participation in toxic exposure risk activity (TERA), finding no evidence of the disease during service or within a year after separation and noting that the earliest diagnosis was nearly 25 years post-service.
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