TEENAGERS in Queensland are breaking out in deadly sun cancers normally found on much older outdoor workers such as farmers.

Alarmed skin cancer specialists are treating people in their late teens and early 20s displaying pre-cancer and cancerous spots usually associated with 60-year-olds.

The worrying trend is backed by research from the Cancer Council of Australia showing that almost a quarter of the countrys teens are getting burnt on any given weekend.

The Cancer Council said young people were heeding the message that it was dangerous to tan but were still getting sunburnt by accident.