The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient medical opinion regarding whether the Veteran's head and neck cancers were related to herbicide exposure in Vietnam. The appellant must provide an additional VA medical opinion on this issue.
The deciding factor: The March 2017 VA medical opinion did not adequately address whether the Veteran’s head and neck cancers were etiologically related to herbicide exposure as they were not enumerated diseases associated with exposure to herbicide agents.
- Claimed conditions
- head and neck cancer
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 27, 2019
- Citation
- 19189733
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,890 · Granted: 32% (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 19189733.
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.
- Denied
The Veteran's death was due to carcinoma esophagus, with head and neck cancer noted as significant conditions. The Board found that the evidence does not support a connection between in-service herbicide agent exposure and the Veteran's cause of death.
- Denied
The Veteran's head and neck cancer, diagnosed as mammary analogue secretory carcinoma, was not incurred in service and is not presumed to have been incurred in service. The Board denied the claim for service connection.
- Granted
The Veteran's cause of death, head and neck cancer, was previously granted service connection. Therefore, the Board has granted service connection for the cause of death.
- Denied
The Board denied the claim for service connection for cause of death due to metastatic skin cancer and head and neck cancer, finding that there was no evidence linking these conditions to military service or any service-connected disabilities.
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