Dr. Racila's research interests are in cancer immunology, genetics and vaccine development; circulating tumor cells; genetic variants in the complement system associated with tumor response to therapy; the molecular genetics of metastatic mesothelioma; and the use of mutational signatures to differentiate primary from metastatic squamous cell carcinoma to the lung. The focus of much of his early research was in the isolation and characterization of circulating tumor cells in systemic and metastatic disease, including breast, colon, and prostate carcinomas. They devised new strategies and methodologies for isolating and characterizing circulating tumor cells from the peripheral blood of patients with these diseases. Their work formed the basis of a widely used commercial technology called CellSearch that can determine the number of circulating tumor cells in these patients. More recently, Racila's research focus shifted to the complement cascade and the role of mutations in complement genes to treatment response.
