Remove and in Text using RegEx

Remove and in Text using RegEx

I am trying to get the text available inside the elements. I have used the
innerHTML to retrieve that inner text, but in few elements the inner Text
is placed inside the elements.
While retrieving the text value am getting it as "sample text" as the
output string. Can anyone help me to remove the "" in the output string
using RegEx so that i can only have "sample text" in my output string.
<a href="#"><span>Sample Text</span></a>
Note: I am not using any Javascript Libraries in the page.