Effects of Melatonin Supplementation on Sleep Quality in Breast Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Evidence on the effectiveness of melatonin in breast cancer patients suffering from sleep disturbances is contradictory, and there have been no meta-analyses on its use in humans with breast cancer. This study investigated the melatonin supplementation effectiveness in alleviating sleep disturbances in breast cancer patients. We searched Embase, PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, and Clinical trial.org databases for relevant reports by following PRISMA guidelines and collected clinical experimental studies of melatonin supplementation in breast cancer patients. Breast cancer for the population, melatonin supplementation for intervention, including sleep indicator, cancer treatment-related symptoms for outcomes, and clinical trial for humans were the searched keywords. Among the 1917 identified records, duplicates and irrelevant articles were excluded. Among the 48 full-text articles assessed, 10 studies met the criteria for inclusion in a systematic review, and five studies had sleep-related indicators and were included in the meta-analysis after quality assessment. The estimated average effect size (Hedges’ g) was −0.79 (p < 0.001) in a random-effects model, thus indicating that melatonin supplementation had a moderate effect in ameliorating sleep quality in breast cancer patients. Pooled data from studies on melatonin supplementation indicate that melatonin administration may alleviate sleep problems related to treatments in breast cancer patients.

The Effect of Melatonin Supplementation on Cancer-Related Fatigue during Chemotherapy Treatment of Breast Cancer Patients: A Double-Blind, Randomized Controlled Study

“…Similarly, Chen and co-workers observed that oral melatonin administration in BC survivors improved sleep efficiency [49]. Deficiencies in the production or synthesis of endogenous melatonin have been found to be associated with the onset of many disorders like BC [50,51]. Sleep disorders are frequent in the general population, and cancer has been reported to activate sleep disorders itself [52,53].…”

Kanser Hastalarinda Uyku Sorunlarinin Yöneti̇mi̇nde Non-Farmakoloji̇k Yaklaşimlar

“…Yapılan bir meta-analiz çalışması, melatonin alımının meme kanseri hastalarında uyku kalitesini özellikle adjuvan tedavi alan hastalarda iyileştirdiğini göstermiştir. Ancak yan etkileriyle ilgili daha fazla çalışmaya ihtiyaç vardır (6,7). Ek olarak, orexin reseptör antagonistleri rexin reseptörlerine bağlanarak oreksin sinyallerini bloke ederler ve böylece uykuya dalmayı kolaylaştırırlar (6).…”