Kidney tumors rank as the sixth most prevalent cancer among men and the ninth among women in the United States [1]. Globally approximately 430,000 new cases of kidney cancer are diagnosed each year, with approximately 180,000 associated deaths. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) constitutes over 90 % of these cases, encompassing three primary pathological subtypes: clear cell RCC (ccRCC), papillary RCC (pRCC), and chromophobe RCC (chRCC). ccRCC is the most common type and accounts for 70–75 % of cases [2]. In Turkey, ccRCC is also the most prevalent subtype of RCC, representing a 72 % proportion of cases [3].

Partial nephrectomy (PN) is recommended for patients with cT1 and cT2 renal tumors whenever technically feasible [4]. Achieving a negative surgical margin is considered a major crucial issue for oncological outcomes for PN [5]. Nonetheless, literature indicates that the rate of positive surgical margins (PSM) ranges from 2 to 8 %. Prior studies have shown that PSM significantly elevates the risk of long-term recurrence and serves as an independent prognostic factor for progression-free survival. However, the correlation between surgical margin status and disease progression, as well as progression-free survival, remains contentious [6].

Imprint cytology (IC) emerges as a straightforward, expeditious, and cost-effective method, boasting a diagnostic accuracy of approximately 78 % for assessing surgical margins [7]. Despite IC being a longstanding method for intraoperative evaluations in pulmonary lesions, melanomas, and breast cancer, there are limited studies for urological cancers [8]. Nevertheless, the current literature offers limited insight into the practical application of IC.

This study aims to assess the diagnostic efficacy of the IC method in patients undergoing laparoscopic PN (LPN).