Cancer is a severe problem that can affect ant part of the body. It is a multifactorial disease due to a combined effect of hereditary and outside factors acting concurrently and consecutively. Unluckily, it is a variety disease at the tissue level and this variety is a major challenge for its specific diagnosis, followed by efficacy of treatment. Tumors may be classified as benign or malignant. Benign tumors are not cancer and do not spread to other parts of the body. A malignant tumor can metastasize and spread to nearby parts of the body and eventually to sites far away from the original tumor. Chemotherapy is a major therapeutic approach for the treatment of different types of cancer. Since anticancer or antineoplastic drugs are neither specific nor targeted to the cancer cells, improved delivery of anticancer drugs to tumor tissues in humans appears to be a rational and attainable challenge. Previously, the chemical carcinogen or group of carcinogens which has received the most attention has been tobacco smoke and deservedly so. Although, there is also fact that industrial and manufacturing exposures to chemicals, agricultural exposures to pesticides, indoor and outdoor air pollution and chemical infectivity of water can form cancer-causing factors present in our living and working atmosphere. The present review focused on types of cancer, causing agents, anticancer agents and long-lasting efficacy in cancer therapy.