Extensive researches have been done on the applications of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) for the biological purposes. However, the role and toxicity mechanisms of ZnO nanostructures (ZnO-NSts) such as nanoplates (NPls), nanorods (NRs), nanosheets (NSs), nanoflowers (NFs) on cancer cells are not largely known. Present study was focused to investigate the possible mechanisms of apoptosis induced by self-designed ZnO-NSts, prepared at fix pH via solution process and exposed against human T98G gliomas including various cancers and non-malignant embryonic kidney HEK293, MRC5 fibroblast cells. NSts were used for the induction of cell death in malignant human T98G gliomas including various cancers and compared with the non-malignant cells. Notably, NRs were found to induce higher cytotoxicity, inhibitory effects on cancer and normal cells in a dose dependent manner. We also showed that NRs induced cancer cell death through oxidative stress and caspase-dependent pathways. Furthermore, quantitative and qualitative analysis of ZnO-NSts have also been confirmed by statistical analytical parameters such as precision, accuracy, linearity, limits of detection and limit of quantitation. These self-styled NSts could provide new perception in the research of targeted cancer nanotechnology and have potentiality to improve new therapeutic outcomes with poor diagnosis.