The Veteran's lung cancer is being remanded due to a failure to verify his potential exposure to herbicide agents during service. The Board requires that the claims file be reviewed by an appropriate Records Research Specialist.
The deciding factor: A VA Herbicide Exposure Verification Memorandum was not properly completed, which constitutes a pre-decisional duty to assist error.
- Claimed conditions
- recurrent metastatic small cell lung cancer, left adrenal gland, lymph nodes
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- Burn pits / airborne hazards
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 15, 2024
- Citation
- A24065568
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 151 · Granted: 25% (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 A24065568.
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 found that the Veteran did not have service in the Republic of Vietnam and there was no evidence to support a finding that his cancers were caused by Agent Orange exposure. Therefore, the claim for service connection for cause of death due to Agent Orange exposure is denied.
- Denied
The Veteran does not have cancer of the thyroid or lymph nodes as a result of his service. The Board finds that the preponderance of the evidence is against the claim, and that the claim must be denied.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran claims service connection for cancer of the thyroid and lymph nodes, which he asserts is due to ionizing radiation exposure during his military service. The case is being remanded for further development including obtaining a new dose estimate from VA based on the Veteran's claimed exposure.
- Denied
The Board found that the Veteran's current squamous cell carcinoma of the maxillary sinus, lymph nodes, and external ear and auditory canal with hearing loss is not related to his military service. The claim for hepatitis C with liver damage was also denied as there is no evidence linking it to his service.
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