One of the problems with modern medicine is that some of the definitions of disease are too broad.
Prof Bell told the BBC: "Breast cancer has always been defined because it is a tumour in the breast.
"But if you look at the molecular detail of those cancers, some are much more similar to ovarian cancers than they are to other breast cancers, in molecular terms and in terms of their response to therapy."
Cancer drugs are generally effective in fewer than one in three patients who take them, the report says.
The theory is that by looking at which genes are active inside a tumour, it will be possible to pick the correct treatment.
This is already happening in some cases. Bowel cancer patients with the defective gene K-RAS do not respond to some drugs, while the breast cancer drug herceptin works only if patients have a specific mutation, HER2.
“Innovation in any setting has to deliver a much better product or lower cost, or both, and I think genetics may be one of the things that does both”
Prof Sir John Bell
Chair of Human Genomics Strategy Group
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