Disclosed are techniques for wireless communication. In an aspect, a user equipment (UE) receives, from a serving cell, an uplink positioning reference signal (UL-PRS) resource configuration, the UL-PRS resource configuration comprising a plurality of N resource elements (REs) staggered in frequency across a plurality of M consecutive symbols of a resource block (RB) such that the plurality of N REs spans a plurality of N consecutive subcarriers of the RB, receives, from the serving cell, an indication of a PRS symbol cancelation group to be used for uplink cancelation, the PRS symbol cancelation group identifying a set of the plurality of M consecutive symbols that is expected to be canceled for uplink transmission, and cancels transmission of UL-PRS on one or more of the set of L symbols identified by the PRS symbol cancelation group.