The Board granted service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that his cholangiocarcinoma was at least as likely as not related to his service-connected diabetes mellitus and/or in-service herbicide agent exposure.
The deciding factor: The Board resolved all doubt in favor of the Appellant by finding a direct relationship between the Veteran's cholangiocarcinoma and his service, considering both his diabetes and herbicide exposure.
- Claimed conditions
- Cholangiocarcinoma
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 13, 2025
- Citation
- A25023342
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,977 · Granted: 27% (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 A25023342.
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.
- 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.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that the evidence did not support a causal link between the Veteran's cholangiocarcinoma and his military service.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that his cholangiocarcinoma was related to in-service exposure to herbicide agents and/or parasitic infection.
- Denied
The Veteran's cause of death, cholangiocarcinoma, was not service-connected as it occurred more than four decades after his military service and there is no evidence linking the cancer to herbicide exposure. The Board denied service connection for the cause of death.
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