Vietnam Veterans Bile Duct Cancer

While most military personnel in southeast asia including vietnam ate canned meals or other meals provided by the military some veterans may have eaten raw or undercooked.

Vietnam veterans bile duct cancer.

Veterans who ate raw or undercooked freshwater fish during their service in southeast asia such as vietnam war veterans might have been infected. The risk factors are exposure to liver flukes and dioxin which is in agent orange documentation is available in the research files for both liver fluke and herbicide exposure. Bile duct cancer is a cancer of the biliary duct system which includes the gallbladder bile ducts and certain cells inside the liver. What is cholangiocarcinoma bile duct cancer.

Symptoms of bile duct cancer. Vietnam war veterans than in other groups of people. The number of claims received has drastically increased over the years but a majority of the claims are denied. Although exposure to the liver fluke in vietnam is mainly through eating raw.

Of the 60 claims for assistance from the va submitted in 2017 by veterans with bile duct cancer three out of four have been rejected according to veterans groups. Cholangiocarcinoma bile duct cancer and veterans of the vietnam war. However currently va is not aware of any studies that show that bile duct cancer occurs more often in u s. This type of cancer is rare in the united states but much more common in southeast asia.

Some veterans who served in vietnam thailand laos and cambodia have developed bile duct cancer. Bile duct cancer also called cholangiocarcinoma is a rare cancer of the biliary duct system. While it is rare bile duct cancer becomes more common as people grow older. The department of veterans affairs this spring commissioned a small pilot study to look into the link between liver flukes ingested through raw or undercooked fish and a rare bile duct cancer.

Vietnam veterans were exposed to two different risk factors regarding developing cholangiocarcinoma due to their service in vietnam. The va rejects claims on the basis of there not being enough evidence of bile duct. The va should be able to use the connection between vietnam service and bile duct cancer.