Plant‐derived anticancer drugs play a large role in anticancer pharmaceuticals. Through reviewing the four major types of plant anticancer drugs, namely vinca alkaloids, taxane diterpenoids, podophyllotoxin lignans, and camptothecin quinoline alkaloids, this article illustrates the development process, current status, existing challenges, and future perspective of the plant anticancer drug production. Moreover, this review explains how various biotechnologies, from the mature elicitation strategy to the “omics” techniques that are still undergoing development, can be applied to address the challenges in improving the production of the plant‐sourced anticancer drugs.