Mesothelioma is a particularly devastating cancer. Most patients succumb within a few years after their diagnosis. But some patients can survive much longer, sometimes for decades.

Cancer researchers are currently trying to figure out what makes these patients different and how to use that information to treat this aggressive cancer. Women with mesothelioma often survive much longer than men with the disease, and figuring out why is a major area of mesothelioma research.

Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that attacks a type of tissue in the body called the mesothelium. Mesothelia are a group of tissues that develop from the same part of a human embryo. These tissues typically form protective membranes. Most often, mesothelioma starts in the lining of the chest cavity. It is often mistakenly called a lung cancer, since the vast majority of cases start nearby in the chest and produce similar symptoms.

Mesothelioma is of particular interest, since it has a well-established cause. Nearly all cases of mesothelioma can be traced back to exposures to asbestos fibers. Asbestos is a naturally-occurring mineral that was widely used as a construction material since the Industrial Revolution.

Asbestos is a strong insulator against heat and electricity, and functionally fireproof, even at industrial temperatures. These extremely useful properties led to widespread use of asbestos in everything from building insulation to space shuttle components.

Even though asbestos was phased out and banned in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s, it can take decades for asbestos cancers like mesothelioma to full manifest. This means that even though the material is banned, asbestos lawsuits are still being filed.

A series of research articles have explored the fact that women with mesothelioma seem to live longer than men with the same cancer. Early in 2014, researchers published an article in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, analyzing data from mesothelioma patients.

This asbestos study quantified the fact that women with mesothelioma survive, on average, 13 percent longer than their male counterparts. This study used data recovered by the Mount Sinai Health System and the Department of Population Health at North Shore Long Island Jewish Hospital.

The data came from the records of more than 14,200 mesothelioma patients between 1973 and 2009. The asbestos study also found that between a fifth and a quarter of mesothelioma patients were women.

Another asbestos study, published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, found that estrogen therapy among women seemed to lengthen survival rates for certain types of lung cancer.

This study used data from records of 485 women involved in an epidemiology study. Here, researchers found that women who had estrogen therapy lived longer than their peers, suggesting that hormones may play a role in cancers like mesothelioma — possibly even suppressing cancer.

It’s well-known that some hormone therapies can help men with cancer. Since some forms of prostate cancer seem to thrive on testosterone, men with this type of prostate cancer are routinely treated with drugs intended to suppress testosterone.

In prostate cancer, this is logical, since the tissue of a healthy prostate can grow and enlarge in response to testosterone levels, so cancers of this tissue may as well. But the various studies on mesothelioma, cancer, and hormone therapy suggest that even cancers like mesothelioma may respond to hormone-based therapies.