The Board has remanded the cases due to inadequate opinion regarding the relationship between the Veteran's appendiceal cancer and his service, specifically presumed exposure to herbicide agents. The cause of death claim is inextricably intertwined with the service connection claim.
The deciding factor: An adequate medical examination must provide a rationale for its conclusions, including addressing specific facts of the case.
- Claimed conditions
- appendiceal cancer, colonic cancer
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 5, 2019
- Citation
- 19191725
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 19191725.
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 cause of death, colonic cancer, was not incurred in service and is not etiologically related to service. The Board denied both the claim for service connection for cause of death and non-service connected death pension benefits due to lack of evidence linking the cause of death to service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for a medical opinion addressing whether the Veteran's left eye condition is related to service, as it found that the condition did not preexist service.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for prostate cancer, related to in-service exposures at Camp Lejeune.
- Granted
The Veteran is granted an effective date of August 10, 2022, for the grant of service connection for sinusitis based on the PACT Act.
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