Any number of female breast cancer patients with stages I to III (according to the AJCC system) will be selected using a simple randomization method and randomly entered patients (random block) will be treated with melatonin or placebo (control group). . With the easy sampling method, eligible ones are randomly divided into intervention and control groups. In this study, the allocation of people to two groups will be done using permuted block technique. In this method, A represents the person who receives the intervention and B represents the person who is placed in the control group. Considering the quadruple block; We give code 0 to the AABB permutation, code 1 to the ABAB permutation, code 2 to ABBA, code 3 to BAAB, code 4 to BBAA and code 5 to 9 to BABA. Then, using the table of random numbers, we will randomly choose a starting point and then consider 21 numbers in rows or columns. Considering the order of the numbers in the table, for each number that we come across, we will assign its permutation, for example, if the first three numbers in the table of random numbers are 1, 0, and 5, then the order of receiving treatment by the first 12 people in the two groups, from left to right will be ABABAABBBABA. Therefore, finally, by choosing the appropriate number of numbers from the table, all the samples will be allocated into two groups.
Blinding includes:
Participants (patients)
Clinical care provider ( radiotherapy-oncology physicians and chemotherapy nurses)
The researcher and evaluator of the outcome and data analyzer (radiotherapy-oncology physician).
In order to hide allocation, medicine, and placebo are put in similar envelopes in the opaque package, which has been numbered.
Blocking and preparation of envelopes are performed by a non-involved person in data sampling and analysis. Thus, the clinical care provider, the data collector, the participant, and the data analyst, are unaware of the type of intervention received and who is located in each group.