The biochemical function of MAGEA10 is not known. UniProt annotates the protein, melanoma-associated antigen 10, as one that may play a role in embryonal development and tumour transformation, or in aspects of tumour progression. Its subcellular location is the nucleus. Because the function is unresolved, much of the interest in the MAGEA10 protein comes from its membership of the MAGE family and its possible links to tumour biology.

The MAGEA10 gene belongs to the MAGEA gene family, whose members encode proteins with 50 to 80% sequence identity to each other. The promoters and first exons of the MAGEA genes vary considerably, which suggests that the family allows the same function to be expressed under different transcriptional controls. The MAGEA genes are clustered at Xq28. Alternative splicing of this gene gives multiple transcript variants, and read-through transcription also occurs between this gene and the downstream melanoma antigen family A, 5 (MAGEA5) gene.

The gene has also been known as melanoma antigen family A10, with the aliases MAGE10, CT1.10 and MGC10599. The MAGEA genes have been implicated in some hereditary disorders, such as dyskeratosis congenita. Researchers studying MAGEA10 often consider it alongside other MAGEA members, such as MAGEA1, MAGEA2, MAGEA3, MAGEA4 and MAGEA8, to compare family-wide and member-specific behaviour.