The Board remands the claims for service connection for liver cancer, hypertensive vascular disease, kidney disease, and upper respiratory disability due to a duty to assist error.
The deciding factor: Remand is necessary as the RO did not fulfill its duty to assist by not obtaining records that could potentially substantiate the Veteran's claim of exposure to Agent Orange during service.
- Claimed conditions
- Liver cancer, Hypertensive vascular disease, Kidney disease, Upper respiratory disability
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 8, 2024
- Citation
- A24064225
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 A24064225.
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 has denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for liver cancer, finding that there is no evidence to support a causal relationship between his in-service exposures and his diagnosed liver cancer. The medical opinion provided by VA concluded that the liver cancer was not caused by or aggravated by any of the conditions listed.
- Dismissed
The appeal for service connection for hypertensive vascular disease is dismissed.,The appeals for service connection for impairment of the lower leg, tibia and fibula (right shin splint) and left shin splint are dismissed.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for a medical opinion regarding the etiology of the Veteran's liver, lung, brain, and bone cancers in relation to his service, including exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for service connection for PTSD, a kidney cyst (claimed as kidney abscess), kidney cancer, kidney disease, and benign prostatic hyperplasia due to lack of evidence supporting a link between these conditions and his military service.
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