The Board denied service connection for COPD, gastric cancer, prostate cancer, and squamous cell carcinoma, finding that there was no evidence linking these conditions to the Veteran's military service or asbestos exposure.
The deciding factor: The opinions provided by independent medical professionals found it unlikely that the Veteran’s cancers were related to his service, including any asbestos exposure therein.
- Claimed conditions
- COPD, asthma, gastric cancer, prostate cancer, squamous cell carcinoma
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- July 3, 2019
- Citation
- 19152046
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,092 · Granted: 42% (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 19152046.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for COPD, finding that there is no evidence of a nexus between his current respiratory disability and active duty service. The VA examiner concluded that the COPD was more likely due to tobacco use rather than asbestos exposure in service.
- Denied
The Veteran's respiratory disability, including asthma and COPD, is denied as service connection is not warranted due to the condition being solely attributed to smoking.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for diabetes mellitus, prostate cancer, visual impairment, hypertension, and erectile dysfunction due to lack of exposure to herbicide agents during service. The Veteran's claims were not granted.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for service connection for prostate cancer, bone cancer, and lymph node cancer has been granted. The prostate cancer is presumed due to herbicide agent exposure during service at RTAFB Takhli. Bone cancer is secondary to the service-connected prostate cancer. Lymph node cancer is also considered secondary to prostate cancer.
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