This theoretical investigation proposes the preliminary stage detection of cancer cells using a prism-based surface plasmon resonance biosensor. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor is label-free and rapid; it supports real-time investigations, including greater sensitivity, and it has an enormous possibility for detecting different forms of cancer. The refractive index alteration of cancer cells is 1.360–1.401. The performance of the SPR sensor has been analyzed. The different types of cancer cells for skin, cervical, blood, adrenal, and breast (type I and II) have been analyzed, and sensitivities of 292, 384, 229, 242, 254, and 261 (degree/RIU) have been achieved, respectively. A high figure of merit of 115.2 R I U − 1 has been achieved for HeLa cells and achieved detection accuracy of 0.32 d e g − 1 for basal cells.