Association between puberty timing and overall survival in male cancer patients: a prospective cohort analysis from the UK Biobank

Pubertal onset varies considerably among individuals, influenced by genetic, nutritional, and environmental factors. As a highly heritable and polygenic trait, pubertal timing has been increasingly linked to cardiometabolic diseases and certain cancers, yet existing evidence has predominantly focused on female populations, with limited data on male cancer outcomes. In males, beyond the established link with prostate cancer, its association with other cancer and cancer survival remains unknown. This study investigates the association between male puberty timing and overall survival (OS) across pan-cancer. This study utilized data from the UK Biobank database, ultimately including 22,902 male cancer patients. We examined the association between pubertal timing and OS in a pan-cancer cohort of male patients. Additionally, cancer type-specific analysis were conducted for lung and prostate cancers. In the pan-cancer male cohort, later pubertal timing was associated with longer OS, while earlier timing showed poorer OS. This association was existed in lung cancer, where both factors of earlier puberty correlated with shorter OS. In prostate cancer, only later voice breaking predicted better OS. No significant associations were observed in other cancer types. Our study indicates that later male pubertal timing is associated with prolonged OS across pan-cancers, particularly in lung and prostate cancer. These findings suggest pubertal timing served as a prognostic marker and warrant further validation in prospective cohorts.