The advent of nanotechnology has revolutionized the way clinicians are treating cancers. Treatment for cancer includes surgery, radiotherapy, hormonal therapy, chemotherapy, and now nano therapy, which could be a possible alternative. This new treatment regime can be beneficial since it shows minimum side effects as compared to other treatment methods. Metallic nanoparticles synthesized through green chemistry by using biological entities minimizes the side effects and enhances the properties of the metal against cancer cells. These green nanoparticles are widely used in research and have shown promising cytotoxic activity against various cancer cell lines. Mechanistically, these nanoparticles can enter the cancer cell and cause cell death by the activation of various molecular pathways such as apoptosis, necrosis and autophagy. This review focuses on the metal nanoparticles (silver, gold and copper) synthesized by the green chemistry approach that have been utilized to study the cancer cell death and we are also discussing the underlying molecular pathways.

纳米技术的出现彻底改变了临床医生治疗癌症的方式。癌症的治疗包括外科手术，放射疗法，激素疗法，化学疗法以及现在的纳米疗法，这可能是一种替代选择。这种新的治疗方案可能是有益的，因为与其他治疗方法相比，它显示出最小的副作用。通过使用生物实体通过绿色化学合成的金属纳米颗粒可将副作用降至最低，并增强金属抗癌细胞的性能。这些绿色纳米颗粒广泛用于研究中，并显示出对各种癌细胞系的有希望的细胞毒活性。从机制上讲，这些纳米粒子可以进入癌细胞并通过各种分子途径（例如凋亡，坏死和自噬）的激活导致细胞死亡。