The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for skin cancer and respiratory cancer due to potential exposure to herbicide agents during service. The Veteran must be scheduled for a VA examination to determine if his current conditions are related to service, including any conceded herbicide agent exposure.
The deciding factor: The claims are inextricably intertwined as the presumptive service connection may not be established under 38 C.F.R. § 3.307(a) due to metastasis of a non-herbicide-exposed cancer.
- Claimed conditions
- Skin cancer, Respiratory cancer
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- Burn pits / airborne hazards
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 29, 2019
- Citation
- 19182005
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 Board granted service connection for ischemic heart disease and diabetes mellitus type II, both presumed to be related to exposure to herbicides during ACDUTRA at Fort McClellan. The claims for benign prostatic hyperplasia, headaches, and skin cancer were remanded.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for Non Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy with macular edema secondary to diabetes mellitus and denied the claims for a right shoulder condition, right upper extremity neuropathy, and skin cancer.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for heart condition, hypertension, prostate cancer, and skin cancer due to in-service herbicide exposure but denied service connection for bilateral hearing loss, tinnitus, and obstructive sleep apnea.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for PTSD and remanded the claim for skin cancer due to a pre-decisional, duty-to-assist error.
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