The Board remands the claim for a new VA medical opinion to determine the etiology of the Veteran's gastrointestinal cancer, considering toxic exposure risk activity.
The deciding factor: The April 2024 VA opinions were found inadequate as they did not address the Veteran's specific TERA exposures and contained insufficient analysis.
- Claimed conditions
- gastrointestinal cancer
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- Burn pits / airborne hazards
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 3, 2025
- Citation
- A25019068
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,858 · Granted: 24% (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 A25019068.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for diabetes mellitus, type II, gastrointestinal cancer, hypertension, and prostate cancer to correct a duty to assist error related to verifying herbicide agent exposure.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the appeal for a new medical opinion to address whether the Veteran's gastrointestinal cancer is related to his military service, including asbestos exposure.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for gastrointestinal cancer secondary to GERD. The Veteran's service-connected GERD was found to be the cause of the gastrointestinal cancer.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeal was dismissed because he passed away before the Board could make a decision. The issues of service connection for gastrointestinal cancer and kidney cancer, status post left nephrectomy, were not addressed due to his death.
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