The presumptive lists
You prove where you served and what you have. The law concedes the connection.
Most VA disability claims are an argument: the veteran must prove his condition was caused by his service, decades after the fact, against records that are incomplete because the government kept them that way. A presumptive condition ends the argument before it starts. In the VA's own plain words: “For some conditions, we automatically assume (or 'presume') that your service caused your condition… If you have a presumptive condition, you don't need to prove that your service caused the condition. You only need to meet the service requirements for the presumption.” You prove where you served and what you have. The law concedes the connection between them.
What this means for your claim
Two proofs, not three — and a denied-before rule.
A presumptive claim needs two things proved: qualifying service, and a current diagnosis on the list. The service is proved with paper — a DD-214, a deck log, a line on the VA's ship list — and the kit for gathering it is at the evidence page. This hub's own working copy of the Agent Orange list is at Presumptive Conditions. And hold the rule that matters most: every list on this page grew — conditions were added in 1991, in 2017, in 2019, and in 2022 — which means claims denied in the years between were denied under lists that no longer exist. If your claim was denied in the past and you may be eligible now, file a Supplemental Claim and the VA will review the claim again. The VA says it will try to contact veterans it thinks may now qualify — and says not to wait for that contact.
Vietnam — the herbicide list
For veterans with qualifying Vietnam-era service (in Vietnam, on its inland waterways, within its 12-nautical-mile territorial sea, and at the PACT Act's added locations — Thailand bases, Laos, Cambodia at Mimot or Krek, Guam and American Samoa, Johnston Atoll), the herbicide presumptive list includes: prostate cancer; type 2 diabetes; respiratory cancers; soft-tissue sarcomas; Hodgkin's disease; non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; chronic B-cell leukemias; multiple myeloma; AL amyloidosis; chloracne; early-onset peripheral neuropathy; porphyria cutanea tarda; ischemic heart disease; Parkinson's disease; bladder cancer; hypothyroidism; and Parkinsonism. The PACT Act added two more that families had sought for years: hypertension and monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). The history of this list — settlement, court order, statute — is at They Knew: Agent Orange.
The Gulf War — undiagnosed and unexplained illness
For Gulf War veterans, 38 U.S.C. §1117 presumes service connection for undiagnosed illnesses and for medically unexplained chronic multisymptom illnesses — the category that includes chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and functional gastrointestinal disorders. This was the first presumption written for illnesses the medicine of the day could not yet name — created, in 1994, while the war's signature exposure was still officially denied. See They Knew: Khamisiyah.
Burn pits and other toxins — the §1120 list
For veterans with presumed toxic exposure under §1119 — the Southwest Asia and post-9/11 location lists, printed at The PACT Act in Plain Language — 38 U.S.C. §1120 presumes service connection for these diseases. The cancers: brain cancer; gastrointestinal cancer of any type; glioblastoma; head cancer of any type; kidney cancer; lymphoma of any type; melanoma; neck cancer of any type; pancreatic cancer; reproductive cancer of any type; and respiratory cancer of any type. The illnesses: asthma diagnosed after service; chronic bronchitis; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); chronic rhinitis; chronic sinusitis; constrictive bronchiolitis or obliterative bronchiolitis; emphysema; granulomatous disease; interstitial lung disease (ILD); pleuritis; pulmonary fibrosis; and sarcoidosis.
Camp Lejeune — eight diseases
For service of not less than 30 days at Camp Lejeune between August 1, 1953 and December 31, 1987, the VA's 2017 rule presumes: adult leukemia; aplastic anemia and other myelodysplastic syndromes; bladder cancer; kidney cancer; liver cancer; multiple myeloma; non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; and Parkinson's disease. Care under the 2012 law covers a wider list of 15 illnesses — under a different, narrower service window. The two are printed separately, with their dates, at They Knew: Camp Lejeune.
Radiation — the radiogenic list
For confirmed participants in the atmospheric tests, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki occupation, and — after the PACT Act — the Enewetak, Palomares and Thule response efforts, a presumption covers a list of radiogenic cancers that began at 13 diseases in 1988 and stands at 21 types of cancer under 38 C.F.R. §3.309. Claims outside the list still run through dose reconstruction — a track where the government's reconstructed number, not the veteran's memory, decides. The record is at They Knew: The Atomic Veterans.
One file on the lists
This site's founding case ran on these lists. Thomas Alan Bowman Sr. served aboard USS ARIKARA (ATF-98) in Da Nang harbor, December 1969 to February 1970. The VA conceded his herbicide exposure in January 2020. His prostate cancer — on the herbicide list — was granted at 100 percent, effective September 20, 2022. His metastatic adenocarcinoma — adenocarcinoma of the prostate with metastasis to the right iliac crest, granted under the same presumption — was rated at 100 percent, effective April 29, 2023. He died on October 31, 2026, with other claims still pending. The presumption did for his cancers what fifty years of argument could not. It came fifty years late — and it is the reason the lists on this page matter to the family maintaining it.
Not sure whether your service and your diagnosis meet on one of these lists? Tell your story — or start with The PACT Act in Plain Language. The full investigation is at DearDougCollins.com.
Information from one family's documented case. Not legal advice.