Citation Nr: 18142634
Decision Date: 10/16/18	Archive Date: 10/16/18

DOCKET NO. 15-07 242
DATE:	October 16, 2018
ORDER
Entitlement to service connection for skin cancer is granted.
FINDING OF FACT
Resolving all reasonable doubt in the Veteran’s favor, his skin cancer is at least as likely as not the result of excessive sun exposure in service.
CONCLUSION OF LAW
The criteria for service connection for skin cancer have been met.  38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.304.
REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION
The Veteran served on active duty from July 1967 to June 1971.
This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a September 2014 rating decision by a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). 
1. Entitlement to service connection for skin cancer
Establishing service connection generally requires evidence of (1) a current disability; (2) an in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) a nexus between the claimed in-service disease or injury and the current disability.  Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1167 (Fed. Cir. 2004).
VA shall give the benefit of the doubt to the claimant when there is an approximate balance of positive and negative evidence regarding any issue material to the determination of a matter.  38 U.S.C. § 5107(b); 38 C.F.R. § 3.102.
Post service treatment records reflect ongoing treatment for removal of skin cancer, diagnosed as basal cell carcinoma, beginning in March 2002.  The Veteran attributes his skin cancer to excessive sun exposure while serving as an airplane mechanic in Vietnam during service.  The Veteran’s DD Form 214 reflects that he served as an aircraft maintenance specialist during service and that he served for nearly a year in the Republic of Vietnam.  In a February 2015 statement, the Veteran reported working for 12 hours a day outside and that due to the heat, he never wore a shirt or a hat.  The Veteran indicated that he did not have skin problems until he returned from Vietnam.  Giving due consideration to the Veteran’s occupational specialty, the Board finds his statements concerning repeated and prolonged exposure to direct sunlight without protection to be consistent with the type and circumstances of his service.  38 U.S.C. § 1154.
There is only one medical opinion of record addressing the relationship between the Veteran’s ongoing skin disabilities and his in-service sun exposure.  The Veteran’s treating dermatologist, K.E., M.D., submitted a September 2014 statement noting that he has treated the Veteran since 2007 for “severe actinic damage including thirty skin cancers.”  Dr. K.E. opined that “there is no doubt that his skin cancers are due, to a large part, to the time he spent in Vietnam as a fair-skinned man.”  This opinion was based on the Veteran’s reports of many severe sunburns during service.     
There are no medical opinions of record contrary to that of the Veteran’s private treatment provider.  The Board finds the opinion to be probative, in that it considers the Veteran’s prior history, and is supported by the dermatologist’s clinical understanding of the effects of sun exposure.  The Veteran offered competent and credible statements that he had repeated and prolonged exposure to direct sunlight and sunburns during his service as an aircraft maintenance specialist.
The Board finds that, in this case, the evidence is at least in equipoise as to whether the Veteran’s skin cancer is related to his in-service sun exposure.  Resolving reasonable doubt in the Veteran’s favor, the Board finds service connection for skin cancer is warranted.
 
 
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	Lindsey Connor