The Board remands the Veteran's claim for service connection for skin cancer to obtain additional evidence and an adequate etiology opinion.
The deciding factor: The advisory medical opinion from the Under Secretary for Health contains inaccurate statements regarding the Veteran's age at exposure and the timing of his diagnosis, which affects the analysis of two key factors in determining whether the Veteran's skin cancer is related to radiation exposure.
- Claimed conditions
- skin cancer
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- Ionizing radiation
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 11, 2025
- Citation
- 25007789
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.
- Partly granted
The appeal for service connection for skin cancer was dismissed due to untimeliness, while the claim for squamous cell carcinoma was granted.
- Dismissed
The appeal was dismissed due to the Veteran's death during the pendency of the claims.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for skin cancer, including as due to participation in toxic exposure risk activity (TERA), finding no evidence of the disease during service or within a year after separation and noting that the earliest diagnosis was nearly 25 years post-service.
- Partly granted
The Board denied service connection for colon cancer, skin cancer, and prostate cancer. The Veteran was granted a 20% rating for right knee osteoarthritis status post meniscectomy with instability or subluxation and a 10% rating for a right knee scar.
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