The Board granted service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that his tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma was related to in-service exposure to herbicide agents.
The deciding factor: The private physician's opinion and the presumption based on service aboard a ship within 12 nautical miles of Vietnam provided significant evidence supporting the claim.
- Claimed conditions
- metastatic tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma, lung metastases
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 11, 2025
- Citation
- A25022439
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 remands the claim for a medical opinion addressing whether the Veteran's left eye condition is related to service, as it found that the condition did not preexist service.
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The Board granted service connection for prostate cancer, related to in-service exposures at Camp Lejeune.
- Granted
The Veteran is granted an effective date of August 10, 2022, for the grant of service connection for sinusitis based on the PACT Act.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for left and right lower extremity peripheral neuropathy, finding that the conditions are related to in-service herbicide agent exposure.
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