The Board remands the claim for service connection of thyroid cancer to correct a pre-decisional duty to assist error, as VA failed to obtain relevant personnel records and a new medical opinion.
The deciding factor: The failure to obtain relevant personnel records and a new medical opinion constitutes a pre-decisional duty to assist error that must be corrected.
- Claimed conditions
- thyroid cancer, hypothyroidism, malignant neoplasm of the thyroid
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 27, 2025
- Citation
- A25028556
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.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for a deviated septum and denied compensable ratings for allergic rhinitis, chronic sinusitis, hypothyroidism, and hypertension.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for thyroid cancer, as it was not shown to be chronic in service and did not manifest within the applicable presumptive period.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for hypothyroidism, as it is presumptively linked to herbicide agent exposure during the Veteran's service in Vietnam.
- Denied
The Board denied an initial compensable disability rating for service-connected hypothyroidism and remanded the claim for service connection for lipomas (claimed as cysts surgery).
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