Background

Decision making about antithrombotic therapy (ATT) in patients with advanced cancer near the end of life is fraught with clinical uncertainty and can significantly affect care. Despite its importance and complexity, ATT is often deprioritized or guided by legacy prescribing and monitoring patterns. Management spans multiple specialties, with roles and responsibilities frequently blurred. Clinicians’ perspectives remain largely underexplored, which are crucial to inform improved care models.

Objectives

This study explores clinicians’ experiences of current practice of continuing and deprescribing ATT in patients with advanced cancer at the end of life.

Methods

Qualitative methodology using semistructured interviews with clinicians involved in ATT management at the end of life, across Denmark, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Data were analyzed using Framework Analysis.

Results

Eighty clinicians across a range of specialties were interviewed. Two major themes were generated: (1) balancing complexities in ATT management: clinicians reported several challenges, from ambiguity surrounding roles and responsibilities, delicacy around timing, and variance in risk perceptions of ATT, balanced with patient preferences; and (2) culture of continuation: clinicians described a general and ATT-specific culture of continuation and reported a passivity in relation to ATT review.

Conclusion

The management of ATT in this context is multifaceted, influenced by many competing factors. These complexities need to be understood and addressed to support decision making related to ATT at the end of life.

© 2026 The Authors.