The Veteran's claim for service connection for skin cancer was reopened due to the submission of new and material evidence. The Board found that the Veteran's sun exposure during his military service may have contributed to his development of skin cancer, leading to a grant of service connection.
The deciding factor: A positive nexus opinion from the Veteran’s treating physician indicated that prolonged time on a ship at sea likely contributed to the Veteran's skin cancers and pre-cancers due to significant sun exposure.
- Claimed conditions
- skin cancer
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 10, 2019
- Citation
- 19127776
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
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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