The Board has remanded the case for additional development, including obtaining a medical opinion regarding whether the Veteran's pancreatic cancer is related to his presumed herbicide exposure in service. The DIC claim remains pending and will be readjudicated after the additional development.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner must provide an opinion on whether the Veteran’s pancreatic cancer is at least as likely as not caused by Agent Orange exposure, which would establish direct service connection for the cause of death.
- Claimed conditions
- diabetes mellitus, pancreatic cancer
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 9, 2020
- Citation
- 20072107
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,050 · Granted: 23% (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 20072107.
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 Board denied service connection for diabetes mellitus, prostate cancer, visual impairment, hypertension, and erectile dysfunction due to lack of exposure to herbicide agents during service. The Veteran's claims were not granted.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for service connection on the merits are being remanded due to new evidence and development needs. The maximum disability rating for tinnitus has already been assigned.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for diabetes mellitus, prostate cancer, ischemic heart disease, right lower extremity peripheral artery disease, left lower extremity peripheral artery disease, and hypertension as the evidence did not establish an in-service event or exposure to herbicide agents.
- Denied
The Veteran's cause of death was not caused by a disability incurred or aggravated in service, and the Board denied the claim for service connection.
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