The Board granted service connection for the Veteran's cause of death, which was esophageal cancer, finding that it was caused by or aggravated by his military service.
The deciding factor: Service connection was granted based on a positive medical nexus opinion from an oncologist linking the Veteran's esophageal cancer to in-service exposure to an herbicide agent and his service-connected PTSD.
- Claimed conditions
- esophageal cancer
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 7, 2025
- Citation
- A25041634
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 service connection for the Veteran's cause of death to correct predecisional duty to assist errors, including obtaining additional records and a medical nexus opinion.
- Granted
The Veteran's esophageal cancer is granted service connection due to herbicide exposure during his service in the Republic of Vietnam.
- Partly granted
The Board denied service connection for gastrointestinal cancer other than esophageal cancer and stomach cancer, brain cancer, and prostate cancer. The issues of entitlement to service connection for esophageal cancer, metastatic esophageal cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer, and liver cancer were remanded.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the matter for a new medical opinion to address the etiology of the Veteran's esophageal cancer, considering his in-service herbicide agent exposure and service-connected posttraumatic stress disorder.
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