The purpose of our study was to evaluate the role of MRI in demonstrating the precise nature of papillary renal tumors (P RCC) and its potential application to select patients for partial surgery. Ninety-seven tumors less than or equal to 3 cm in size [55 papillary renal cell carcinoma - 42 clear cell renal carcinoma (CC RCC)] were preoperatively evaluated by MRI. Imaging findings were assessed with a special focus on the aspect of the tumoral process. Correlations were performed with pathologic staging after surgery. At pathology, 92 tumors were established to be staged p T1 and 5 were p T3 ( 3 cases of CC RCC and 2 cases of P RCC). Ninety-four percent of papillary tumors exhibited low signal intensity with homogeneous pattern on T2-weighted images. All clear cell carcinoma were hyperintense and heterogeneous on T2-weighted sequence. Enhancement was lower and delayed in the papillary type in comparison with the clear cell type. MRI is accurate enough to predict the 'histologic' nature of papillary renal carcinoma. It is an additional argument to propose that the tumor can be removed by partial surgery.