Citation Nr: 21022963 Decision Date: 04/19/21 Archive Date: 04/19/21 DOCKET NO. 20-12 991 DATE: April 19, 2021 ORDER Service connection for residuals of prostate cancer, claimed as secondary to chronic prostatitis, is granted. FINDING OF FACT The Veteran’s residuals of prostate cancer are due to his service-connected prostatitis. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for service connection for residuals of prostate cancer have been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131, 5107(b) (2012); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.304, 3.310 (2020). REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from June 1959 to October 1982. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from an April 2016 rating decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). This case was remanded in June 2020 for further development; it has since been re-assigned to the undersigned. In addition to the issue listed on the title page, the June 2020 Board remand included the issues of service connection for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and erectile dysfunction, as well as entitlement to special monthly compensation (SMC) based on loss of a creative organ. A November 2020 rating decision granted service connection for these issues and entitlement to SMC. Because that decision represents a full grant of the benefits sought, those issues are no longer before the Board. Grantham v. Brown, 114 F.3d 1156 (Fed. Cir. 1997). Service connection for residuals of prostate cancer, claimed as secondary to chronic prostatitis, is granted. Service connection may be established for a disability resulting from a disease or injury incurred in or aggravated by active service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303. Service connection requires evidence showing: (1) a current disability; (2) incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury in service; and (3) a nexus between the current disability and the disease or injury incurred or aggravated in service. See Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1167 (Fed. Cir. 2004). Service connection may be granted for any disease diagnosed after discharge when all the evidence, including that pertinent to service, establishes that the disability was incurred in service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(d). Service connection may also be granted for a disability that is proximately due to, or aggravated by, a service-connected disease or injury. 38 C.F.R. § 3.310. When there is an approximate balance of positive and negative evidence regarding any issue material to the determination of a matter, the Secretary shall give the benefit of the doubt to the claimant. See 38 U.S.C. § 5107; 38 C.F.R. § 3.102; see also Gilbert v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 49, 53 (1990). In June 2020 correspondence, the Veteran’s private treating physician for 15 years noted that the Veteran has been “plagued by chronic prostatitis since service” and that he also developed BPH, organic erectile dysfunction, and prostate cancer subsequent to his diagnosis of chronic prostatitis. It was his impression that those diagnoses “are more likely than not related to the chronic inflammation state caused by persistent prostatitis.” The November 2020 VA examiner noted that chronic prostatitis can lead to difficulties with urination and sexual performance, but it has not been clinically shown to cause prostate cancer. Despite this, the examiner cited to several medial articles which showed that there does appear to be “some association between the two” but that “definitive causal links have not been substantiated.” The cited articles include one study that showed an increased risk of prostate cancer in men with symptomatic prostatitis; another study found that the relative odds of prostate cancer were elevated in men with a history of any type of prostatitis. In view of the totality of the evidence, including the positive opinion from the Veteran’s treating physician and the articles cited to by the November 2020 VA examiner that shows an association between prostatitis and prostate cancer, the Board finds that the Veteran’s prostate cancer is caused by his service-connected prostatitis. The Board therefore finds that the evidence is at least in equipoise and, therefore, applying the benefit of the doubt doctrine, service connection for residuals of prostate cancer is warranted. Gilbert, 1 Vet. App. at 53-56. E. I. VELEZ Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board T. Matta, Counsel The Board’s decision in this case is binding only with respect to the instant matter decided. This decision is not precedential and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.