The Veteran's lung cancer is not service-connected, and the claim for DIC under 38 U.S.C. § 1318 is remanded due to insufficient evidence regarding potential exposure to Agent Orange.
The deciding factor: There is no regulatory presumption of service connection for the cause of death due to exposure to herbicides (Agent Orange) in Vietnam.
- Claimed conditions
- metastatic lung carcinoma
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating
- Not verified here — check the original decision
- Decision date
- June 13, 2019
- Citation
- 19146175
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,569 · Granted: 26% (granted or partly granted, in the indexed 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. Read the original VA decision (opens in a new tab) using citation 19146175.
What this means for you
A remand sends an issue back for more development, often a new examination or missing records. It does not award the benefit or decide the final outcome. The original decision explains the additional work ordered.
What you can do next
Use your own notice and decision stage. A remanded issue is not a final court-appealable denial. VA review guidance and CAVC filing instructions (U.S. federal; reviewed October 7, 2026).
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran's cause of death was not caused by or related to any disease or injury in service, and thus denied the claim for service connection for cause of death.
- Whole decision: Granted
The Board granted service connection for the cause of death, finding that the Veteran's service-connected pleural asbestosis materially contributed to his metastatic lung carcinoma.
- Whole decision: Granted
The Veteran's death was caused by metastatic lung carcinoma, which is presumed to be associated with herbicide agent exposure. The Board granted service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death due to in-service herbicide exposure.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Board denied the claim for service connection for cause of death, finding that there was no evidence to support a causal link between the Veteran's service-connected pleural asbestosis and his death from metastatic lung carcinoma.
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