Maybe you're referring to nested parenthetics, which your regex indeed doesn't handle properly.

c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"my $desc = 'leave (only text) this () too -- does not (v(w(x)y)z) wor
+k';
 $desc =~ s/\(.*?\)//gs;
 print qq{'$desc'};
"
'leave  this  too -- does not y)z) work'
[download]

Can you elucidate?

Update: If you're concerned about nested parens, maybe see Regexp::Common::balanced (used as below):

c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"use Regexp::Common qw(balanced);
 ;;
 my $desc = 'a (text) b () c (v(w(x)y)z) d ((())) e (unbalanced(balanc
+ed) f';
 $desc =~ s{ $RE{balanced}{-parens => '()'} }{}xmsg;
 print qq{'$desc'};
"
'a  b  c  d  e (unbalanced f'
[download]

(Update update: Regexp::Common::balanced is 5.8 compatible.)