The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for his renal cell carcinoma (RCC) due to both Agent Orange exposure and secondary to his service-connected diabetes mellitus type II (DM).,The evidence did not support a link between RCC and either DM or Agent Orange exposure.
The deciding factor: There was no definitive research linking Agent Orange exposure to renal cell carcinoma, and the medical opinions were contradictory. The Veteran's private urologist provided an opinion supporting a connection to Agent Orange, while VA examiners concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support such a link.
- Claimed conditions
- Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC)
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 1, 2020
- Citation
- 20064225
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 715 · Granted: 43% (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 20064225.
What this means for you
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What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claim for service connection for renal cell carcinoma is being remanded due to the submission of new and material evidence. The Board will schedule a VA examination to determine if RCC is related to his service, including herbicide agent exposure.
- Granted
The Veteran's renal cell carcinoma is found to be at least as likely as not related to his service exposure to ionizing radiation, and the claim for service connection is granted.
- Granted
The Veteran's GIST and RCC are found to be secondary to his service-connected post-operative orchiectomy, left testicle, status post stage 1 seminoma due to radiation therapy. The Board granted the claims based on the evidence being in equipoise.
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