â¢ AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE (noun). The noun AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE has 1 sense: 1. any of a large group of diseases characterized by abnormal functioning of the immune system that causes your immune system to produce antibodies against your own tissues.
The initiation of cell transformation is generally associated with genetic alterations in normal cells that lead to the loss of intercellular-and/or extracellular-matrix- (ECM-) mediated cell adhesion.ancer afflicts an organ or a tissue by inducing abnormal and uncontrolled division of cells that either constitute it or migrate to it. At the cellular level, this is caused by genetic alterations in networks that regulate cell division and cell death.
Genes that speed up cell division are called oncogene s. Others that slow down cell division, or cause cells to die at the right time, are called tumor suppressor genes. Certain changes (mutations) in DNA that âturn onâ oncogenes or âturn offâ tumor suppressor genes can cause normal breast cells to become cancerous.any risk factors can increase your chance of developing breast cancer, but it is not yet known exactly how some of these risk factors cause cells to become cancerous.