Cancer is a major malignancy which has claimed numerous lives worldwide. Despite huge resources being utilized to develop cancer therapeutics, no effective cure has been found so far. Hence there is a need to look at emerging technologies for a solution. Nanoparticle is one such technology that has become feasible and popular in the past few years. Though, it has not emerged as a drug delivery platform of choice for cancer therapeutics it has shown enormous promise. Different types of materials such as polymer, lipid, magnet, metal based nanoparticles have been developed to enhance the effectiveness of current treatment. This manuscript will review different aspects of nanoparticles and recent research advances and patents for treatment of cancer.