The Board denied the claim for service connection for cause of death, finding that the Veteran's causes of death were acute myeloid leukemia and metastatic rectal cancer, and neither hypertension nor coronary artery disease caused or contributed to his death.
The deciding factor: The medical evidence did not support a causal relationship between the Veteran's hypertension, coronary artery disease, and his cause of death due to acute myeloid leukemia and metastatic rectal cancer.
- Claimed conditions
- metastatic rectal cancer, acute myeloid leukemia
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 19, 2025
- Citation
- A25025697
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 868 · Granted: 42% (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 A25025697.
What this means for you
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What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the evidence is in equipoise as to whether the Veteran's service-connected hypertension contributed to his cause of death, and therefore grants service connection for the cause of death.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to insufficient evidence regarding the Veteran's exposure to fire suppression chemicals during service, which may be related to his cause of death.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to an inadequate VA medical opinion regarding the Veteran's hypertension and coronary artery disease, which may have contributed to his cause of death.
- Denied
The Veteran's cause of death, sepsis and acute myeloid leukemia with toxic encephalopathy, was not caused by or related to his military service. The Board found that the available evidence did not show a nexus between the Veteran's exposure to toxins or herbicides and his death.
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