Cancer is a major threat to human health, and it is still the leading cause of death from disease. Due to how quickly nanomedicine is developing, it is thought that nanoscale metal–organic frameworks (MOF) could be used in the treatment and biomedical imaging of many types of cancer. More and more researchers are interested in zeolite imidazole framework (ZIF)−8 because it has a high porosity, a large specific surface area, and reacts to changes in pH. Understanding the properties of nanomaterials and how tumour works requires a complex and thorough look at how ZIF-8 nanoparticles (NPs) are made, how they can be changed, and how drugs are loaded into them. We mostly looked at the research that came out in the last three years, summed up how their use in imaging and treating tumour has changed, and talked about the pros and cons of using ZIF-8 NPs for cancer theranostic now and in the future. As a MOF material with a lot of potentials, ZIF-8 is likely to be used in more therapeutic systems in the future and to continue to help with all parts of tumour therapy and diagnosis.