Abstract: Cancer is the second most common disease in the world,and its incidence is increasing annually.Despite of the rapid development of various targeted therapeutic approaches,mortality related to cancer remains at a staggering high level. Therefore,more effective therapeutic strategies are required to combat cancer. Modern researches showed that plant polyphenols had shown good biological activities in the prevention and treatment of cancer.In order to provide reference for making full use of the resource of plant polyphenols,the research progress in the anti- tumor activities and related mechanisms of plant polyphenols were summarized in this paper in recent years.