The Board has granted service connection for skin cancer, including actinic keratosis, malignant melanoma, and basal cell carcinoma. The decision is based on the Veteran's in-service exposure to sunlight and his subsequent development of these conditions.
The deciding factor: The VA examiners provided opinions linking the Veteran's skin cancers to his military service, specifically his exposure to sunlight during service, which was sufficient to establish a causal relationship for purposes of direct service connection.
- Claimed conditions
- skin cancer, actinic keratosis, malignant melanoma, basal cell carcinoma
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 19, 2024
- Citation
- 24003075
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 785 · Granted: 34% (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 24003075.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to inadequate medical opinions regarding the Veteran's basal cell carcinoma. The Veteran is seeking service connection for this condition, which he claims was caused by exposure to water-based contaminants at Camp Lejeune during his military service.
- Denied
The Veteran's service connection claims for skin cancer and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) have been denied as there is no current diagnosis of these conditions, and the evidence does not support a causal relationship to active military service.
- Denied
The Veteran's appeal for special monthly compensation and service connection was denied due to a late filing of the Board Appeal request.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for service connection for actinic keratosis, finding that his condition had its onset during active duty and is related to exposure to harmful sun while deployed in Afghanistan.
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