During her residency, Kandel completed a two-year surgical research fellowship with Dr. Judah Folkman at the Boston Children's Hospital, investigating mechanisms of tumor angiogenesis (new blood vessel development that "feeds" tumors).
In 1998, Kandel, Darrell Yamashiro, and colleagues at the Pediatric Tumor Biology Laboratory were the first to describe the way experimental pediatric tumor growth could be suppressed by blocking a molecule called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) from performing its natural job.
Their laboratory research provided key preclinical data about an antibody to VEGF, which was later humanized to become bevacizumab (Avastin, Genentech).
Understanding how tumors become resistant to therapies that target recruited host cells may play an important role in the development of therapies for children with resistant cancers such as neuroblastoma, Wilms tumor, and hepatoblastoma.
Kandel has developed a novel mouse model of lymphatic malformations, with her coinvestigator, Carrie Shawber.