The Board has decided to remand the case for further development and medical inquiry into whether the Veteran's cause of death is related to service, including herbicide exposure in Vietnam.
The deciding factor: The primary site of the cancer that caused death needs to be determined, as well as its relation to service, particularly considering the presumptive provisions for certain cancers due to herbicide exposure.
- Claimed conditions
- adenocarcinoma of unknown primary
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 28, 2019
- Citation
- 19140802
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,886 · Granted: 24% (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 19140802.
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.
- Granted
The Board has granted the appellant's request to reopen her previously denied claim of service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death and has determined that lung cancer, presumed due to exposure to an herbicide agent during service in Vietnam, is a compensable condition.
- Denied
The Board found that the Veteran's cause of death, liver failure due to metastatic cancer of unknown primary, was not related to his service or exposure to Agent Orange. The VA medical advisory opinion did not address a possible nexus between the Veteran's liver cancer and his service.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for the cause of death due to lack of evidence linking metastatic adenocarcinoma of the liver to service, including exposure to herbicides.
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