The Veteran's head and neck cancer is being remanded for further examination to determine if it is related to his in-service herbicide exposure.
The deciding factor: Further development is needed due to equivocal medical opinions provided by the Veteran’s treating physicians.
- Claimed conditions
- squamous cell carcinoma, salivary gland tumor, adenocarcinoma
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 20, 2019
- Citation
- 19164651
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 19164651.
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.
- Partly granted
The Board dismissed the claim for service connection for headaches and remanded claims for service connection for various other conditions, including open angle glaucoma, sensorineural hearing loss, asthma, heart disease, bladder cancer, and squamous cell carcinoma.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for squamous cell carcinoma, finding that the Veteran's condition is related to his active service, including conceded in-service exposure to Agent Orange.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that squamous cell carcinoma was a complication of his service-connected hidradenitis suppurativa.
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