Published Oct 16, 2026
Updated Oct 16, 2026
For many surgeons, Gregory Weinstein is known as one of the pioneers who developed TransOral Robotic Surgery (TORS) and helped establish it as a new approach for Head&Neck Cancer.
A surgeon before robotics
It would be a mistake to tell Greg Weinstein’s story as if it began with a surgical robot. Long before TORS, he had established himself as a highly respected Head&Neck surgeon, with particular expertise in organ-preserving surgery for laryngeal cancer. His work on supracricoid partial laryngectomy helped bring a demanding European surgical philosophy into American practice: treating cancer while preserving the larynx and its function whenever oncologically appropriate.
Weinstein was among the first surgeons in the United States to adopt and teach supracricoid partial laryngectomy. His collaboration with the French school (see his publications with Laccourreye and colleagues) dates back to 1990. Greg was, in a sense, one of those American surgeons with a distinctly European polish. His outlook was international, his surgical thinking shaped by different traditions, and his work grounded in the conviction that technical innovation should serve both cancer control and functional preservation.
His time in Paris, working with the Laccourreye team at Hôpital Laënnec, was an important part of that story. The exchange between Philadelphia and Paris was more than a professional connection: it brought together surgical experience and ideas that helped advance organ-preserving laryngeal surgery on both sides of the Atlantic.
So, by the time robotics entered the picture, Weinstein was already a surgeon with an established reputation, a distinctive surgical philosophy and a record of innovation.
The origins of TORS
At the University of Pennsylvania, Weinstein and Bert W. O’Malley Jr. pursued a question that seemed far from obvious at the time: could a surgical robot make transoral surgery more effective and expand the options available to patients with Head&Neck Cancer?
Their work began with experimental research and the development of techniques that made it possible to operate through the mouth using multiple robotic arms. The contribution of their team, including Neil Hockstein’s early work on transoral access and instrumentation, helped establish the technical foundations of TORS.
This was not simply a matter of placing a robot in front of a patient. The team had to rethink access, exposure, instrument positioning and the relationship between the surgeon and the anatomy. The use of multiple instrument arms, together with an endoscopic view, made a new way of operating possible.
The University of Pennsylvania became the home of the first research programme in human TORS and subsequently of a structured training programme. Weinstein and O’Malley helped train surgeons who would introduce the technique into centres across the United States and around the world.
The significance of this achievement lies not only in the procedures they developed. It also lies in their willingness to teach the techniques, share their experience and build a community of surgeons capable of taking the approach further.
Epilogue
When we first met in 2013, he looked quite different from the surgeon familiar from photographs. On being greeted in the operating room, the difference was mentioned, and Weinstein explained that he had faced a serious health problem: obesity. He had since adopted a vegan diet and taken up running, transforming his lifestyle.
Today, Greg Weinstein remains active at the University of Pennsylvania, continuing his work in head and neck oncology, teaching and research. More than two decades after the first clinical applications of TORS, he remains involved in the ongoing refinement of the technique and in the scientific questions surrounding its use.
Related posts (in this Web)
The origin of the name TORS May 17, 2026
Preface to the 2016 edition May 11, 2025
FKWO pharyngolaryngoscope Feb 8, 2025
References
Laccourreye H, Laccourreye O, Weinstein G, Menard M, Brasnu D. Supracricoid laryngectomy with cricohyoidopexy: a partial laryngeal procedure for selected supraglottic and transglottic carcinomas. Laryngoscope. 1990 Jul;100(7):735-41. doi: 10.1288/00005537-199007000-00009.
Weinstein GS, O’malley BW Jr, Hockstein NG. Transoral robotic surgery: supraglottic laryngectomy in a canine model. Laryngoscope. 2005 Jul;115(7):1315-9. doi: 10.1097/01.MLG.0000170848.76045.47.
Weinstein GS, O’Malley BW Jr, Snyder W, Sherman E, Quon H. Transoral robotic surgery: radical tonsillectomy. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2007 Dec;133(12):1220-6. doi: 10.1001/archotol.133.12.1220.
Weinstein GS, O’Malley BW Jr, Desai SC, Quon H. Transoral robotic surgery: does the ends justify the means? Curr Opin Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2009 Apr;17(2):126-31. doi: 10.1097/MOO.0b013e32832924f5.
Sperry SM, O’Malley Jr BW, Weinstein GS. The University of Pennsylvania Curriculum for Training Otorhinolaryngology Residents in Transoral Robotic Surgery. ORL J Otorhinolaryngol Relat Spec 2014;76:342-352
Granell J, Weinstein GS, Gutierrez-Fonseca R. Adjusting the focus of transoral robotic surgery. Acta Otorrinolaringol Esp 2015;66:181-182. doi: 10.1016/j otorri.2014.09.001
Weinstein GS. Transoral Robotic Surgery and the Standard of Care. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2017 Jan 1;97(1):4. doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2016.09.028.