Cancer is one of the life-threatening diseases which creates major problem in both the developing and developed countries. Demand for new methods to prevent this disease is growing increasingly. Plants have always been a basis for the traditional medicine systems and they have provided continuous remedies to the mankind for thousands of years. Medicinal plants are considered as a repository of various bioactive compounds and used for long time due to its therapeutic properties. Plant derived product has benefits over synthetic medicine which increased the utilization of medicinal plants in the healthcare sector as several plants’ derived compounds show potential role against cancer treatment. Plant based anticancer agents includes vincristine, taxol, vinblastin, stigmasterol, camptothecin, resveratrol, etc., are in clinical use all over the world. In the present review, an effort has been made to provide the information about the role of various medicinal plants against cancer.